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ADERS OF YOUTH 

THE INTERMEDIATE-SENIOR 
W R K ER AND WO RK 

HUGH HENRY HARRIS 








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Book , 1 

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THE WORKER AND WORK SERIES 

THE BEGINNERS' WORKER AND WORK. Frederica Beard 

THE PRIMARY WORKER AND WORK. Marion Thomas 

THE JUNIOR WORKER AND WORK. Josephine L. Baldwin 

LEADERS OF YOUTH (Intermediates and Seniors). Hugh H.Harris 
LEADERS OF YOUNG PEOPLE. Frank Wade Smith 

THE ADULT WORKER AND WORK. Wade Crawford Barclay 
THE SUPERINTENDENT. Frank L. Brown 

THE WORKER AND HIS CHURCH. Eric M. North 

THE WORKER AND HIS BIBLE. 

Frederick C. Eiselen and Wade Crawford Barclay 



The Worker and Work Series 

HENRY H. MEYER, Editor 



Leaders of Youth 

The Intermediate-Senior Worker and Work 

By 
HUGH HENRY HARRIS 



Approved by the Committee on Curriculum 

of the Board of Sunday Schools of the 

Methodist Episcopal Church 




THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



1-43 



Copyright, 1922, by 
HUGH HENRY HARRIS 



Printed in the United States of America 

MAR 1 5 1922 
©CLA659144 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

The Religious Education of Youth 7 

Foreword 9 

PART I 

A STUDY OF THE INTERMEDIATE- 
SENIOR 

I. The Intermediate and His World 13 

II. The Senior and His World 23 

III. The Significance of Sex Development 34 

IV. Individual Differences 46 

V. Group Differences 53 

VI. God in the Life of Youth 62 

VII. Youth and the Church 72 

PART II 

MEANS FOR DEVELOPING THE INTER- 
MEDIATE-SENIOR 

VIII. The Worker's Task 85 

IX. Departmental Organization 95 

X. Outfitting the Department 104 

XL Character through Worship 113 

XII. Building Programs of Worship 124 

XIII. Story-Telling 133 

XIV. Character through Recreation 141 

XV. Character through Service 154 

XVI. In Quest of Friends 166 

XVII. The Lure of Books 174 

5 



6 CONTENTS 

PART III 
INSTRUCTING THE INTERMEDIATE-SENIOR 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. Lesson Materials for Intermediates. ....... 187 

XIX. Lesson Materials for Seniors 196 

XX. Getting Expression from the Class 204 

XXI. How to Get the Pupils to Study 213 

XXII. Adolescent Doubts and Questions 220 

XXIII. Helping Pupils Decide Their Future 227 

XXIV. Developing and Training Leadership 233 



THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF YOUTH 

Efficiency in religious education through the Sunday 
school has developed upward from the lower grades. Most 
of our early American Sunday schools were "Infant 
Schools/' so called. That is, their membership was com- 
posed principally of the younger children. The evan- 
gelical churches have been seriously engaged for a longer 
time at the task of religious education of children than 
of older hoys and girls. As a result more real progress 
has been made and a higher degree of efficiency attained. 
Progress in secular education, also, during the past century 
has been most marked in the elementary grades. The 
whole development of the kindergarten in America has 
taken place within the past seventy-five years, and its influ- 
ence upon elementary education has been revolutionary. 
This development has deeply influenced both the ideals and 
the practice of religious nurture in religious schools. 

Recent years have witnessed a marked awakening to the 
importance of the period of youth in religious education. 
The scientific study of adolescence has contributed to this 
interest. Accompanying the increased appreciation of the 
significance of adolescence for religion has come the real- 
ization of how slight a measure of success has accom- 
panied the work of the Sunday school with boys and girls. 
The realization of the terrific losses in membership during 
the early teens has come as an accusing conscience, causing 
religious workers everywhere to inquire the explanation, 
to question prevailing methods of administration and of 
instruction, and to seek the better way. 

One of the first results of this inquiry has been the de- 
velopment of specialized method. Formerly all Sunday 
schools included all members of the school above the ele- 
mentary grades in one mass assembly. Within a few years 

7 



8 THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF YOUTH 

the realization has become almost universal among progres- 
sive Sunday-school workers that just as elementary teachers 
recognize clearly denned groups within the field of child- 
hood, with corresponding Beginners', Primary, and Junior 
Departments, so in dealing with adolescents it is necessary 
to differentiate between the interests and needs of boys 
and girls in early youth, those in middle youth, and those 
in later youth. This has led in our larger and better 
equipped schools to separate departments for Intermediates 
(12, 13, 14 years), Seniors (15, 16, 17 years), and Young 
People (18-24 years). 

The majority of our Protestant Sunday schools have a 
comparatively small membership; a large number enroll- 
ing less than two hundred pupils; more than one half, in 
all probability, less than one hundred. For these smaller 
schools, most of them with inadequate equipment, a com- 
pletely departmentalized school is an impossibility. They 
must combine certain groups of pupils. For many, one 
such combination is represented by bringing together the 
pupils of early and middle youth into an Intermediate- 
Senior (or Teen-Age) Department. It is for the officers 
and teachers in such schools that Leaders of Youth has 
been written. 

The writer, Dr. Hugh Henry Harris, is professor of reli- 
gious education in Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. 
For years as student, pastor, director of religious educa- 
tion, and professor he has both studied boys and girls and 
worked with them. This book therefore comes out of thor- 
ough investigation and ripe experience. We are confident 
that both as a manual for reading and as a textbook for 
study it will be found to be an effective means of increas- 
ing efficiency in this most important task of religious edu- 
cation of boys and girls in the trying, crucial years of early 
youth. — The Editors. 



FOREWORD 

The reader will discover that this handbook is divided 
into three parts. It is intended that Part I should furnish 
a sufficient foundation in the psychology of adolescence to 
enable the worker with intermediates or with seniors to 
understand the inner life of the pupils of his department. 
A thorough mastery at this point will give intelligent direc- 
tion to his future thought and work. 

For the one, however, who wishes to plunge at once into 
plans and programs, Part II forms a satisfactory beginning. 
He will here find a discussion of the organization and 
equipment of the department and directions for worship, 
recreation, and service which will guide him in the actual 
conduct of his class or department. 

If, instead, the reader's greatest immediate need is to 
know how to handle the lesson material in the class, it is 
suggested that he turn at once to Part III. Here will be 
found no tricks but a careful study of the graded lessons 
for these students, together with explanations of how to 
get the most out of the lesson period. 

As efficient practice is based on sound theory it is urged 
upon all who would master the technique of intermediate- 
senior work to read carefully Part I before perusing the 
remainder of the book. 

Hugh Hexry Harris. 
Emory University, Georgia. 

January, 1922. 



PART I 
A STUDY OF THE INTERMEDIATE-SENIOR 



CHAPTER I 
THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 

Have you ever asked yourself what the boys and girls of 
the Intermediate Department of the Sunday school do with 
their time, how they spend the twenty-four hours of the 
day? Have you ever taken thought to watch their pur- 
suits in the hope of gaining some better knowledge of 
their lives? Without such knowledge one's ideas of these 
pupils are likely to be hazy, and the real life of the boy 
or the girl to be looked upon as trivial and unimportant 
or clothed with affectation and fantasy, giving a sense of 
unreality. But be assured, the lives of these our young 
friends are very real — quite as real and vital to them as 
are ours to us. To know and to aid them we must ascertain 
what they do, what they like, how they change as the years 
advance, and we must see life as they see it. 

1. The intermediate and the school. A considerable 
part of the life of youth up to the fifteenth year is lived 
in public or private schools. Five to six hours of each day 
are spent in the seventh or eighth grade or in the first 
or second year of high school. Studying books, reciting 
lessons, working in the laboratory, doing manual work, 
learning languages, engage their time. This life under dis- 
cipline they accept with every degree of interest from posi- 
tive revolt and compulsion through unemotional but ac- 
cepted tradition and custom up to eager, joyous, and 
enthusiastic endeavor. The major part, likely, falls into 
the middle class just mentioned, accepting school with its 
tasks and its fellowship quite as a matter of fact. 

During these years some begin to take a forward look 
either toward high school or toward release from irksome 
school duties. Certainly we can say that entrance into 

13 



14 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

high, school marks a new turn in the lives of the young 
quite as truly as leaving school for business or for home 
tasks. As the average age for entering high school lies 
between fourteen and one-half and fifteen years, it is seen 
that this new life is entered upon during the very years 
under discussion. School is central in the lives of these 
pupils, first, because of its large time demand, and, secondly, 
because of its insistence upon certain well-defined dis- 
ciplines. 

For, after all — or, perhaps, we should say best of all — 
the school is not simply an institution of instruction; it is 
a social colony, with well-organized life, with its customs 
and conventions, with the give-and-take that social living 
always means. Habits are being formed, and the experi- 
ences of later life are being given a background; ideals are 
being created and attitudes established. The school is not 
a knowledge factory, but democracy's plan for creating citi- 
zens, equipped to live in the social complex of a self-govern- 
ing people. In so far as the school fulfills this, its chief 
function, the world of the school is the pupil's chief world. 

2, The leisure time of the intermediates. If we turn 
from the school hours and inquire what is done with the 
remaining time of each day, we soon discover some of the 
vital interests of these pupils. For, after all, the occupa- 
tions we follow in our leisure time indicate quite truly 
our real desires and our true purposes. From a consider- 
able list of reports upon the use of time among boys anri 
girls of this age group the following typical cases present 
some concrete facts: 

Boy, fifteen. — Playing ball, riding his bicycle, and helping 
in a grocery store; delivers newspapers each afternoon; 
works most of Saturday. 

Boy, thirteen. — Spare hours spent playing games, going 
to the Young Men's Christian Association, taking walks, 
swimming; goes to "movies" occasionally; is building a 
clubhouse; likes to read some. 

Girl, thirteen. — "Helping mother,'* with many little house- 



THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 15 

hold duties and learning to cook; working with her father 
in the garden, where she has a small plot; plays volleyball, 
roller skates, rides bicycle, plays house, and sews for a 
family of dolls of which she is still fond; often reads books 
with her girl friends; takes piano lessons and spends a 
portion of her time in practice; loves to read stories, espe- 
cially about rich little girls, but occasionally likes thrilling 
boy's stories. 

Girl, thirteen. — Music lesson one hour a day ; uses extra 
hours studying, visiting, doing some fancy work, reading; 
goes to "movies" once or twice a month. 

Boy, thirteen. — This boy in his spare time plays, does 
chores in the home, and sometimes attends "movies." His 
chief interests are athletics, especially football, manual 
work, hunting and fishing, and the "movies." He is very 
fond of reading short wild-west stories or stories that have 
plenty of action, adventure, and daring. His delight knows 
no bounds when he has a gun on his shoulder and goes 
looking for rabbits or birds to shoot. 

Boy, twelve. — Most of the hours out of school are spent 
playing games with associates. He joined the Scouts re- 
cently and for a time was perfectly carried away with the 
idea of being a Scout, especially during the time the Scout- 
master took time for week-end outings and hikes. He is 
much interested in athletics and likes to wrestle and box. 
He is also fond of reading Boy Scout stories and of motion 
pictures along the same line. He is beginning to resent 
too close watch over what he does and where he goes and 
is much more susceptible to persuasion than to direct 
command. 

Girl, fifteen. — Hours out of school are spent in reading 
current fiction and the classics, studying (she wants to 
become a college professor), playing tennis, visiting, at- 
tending "movies," dancing. 

Girl, fifteen. — Averages two hours study each night, cro- 
chets and embroiders just before the fair and Christmas, 
takes care of her room, makes cakes, and occasionally helps 



16 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

her mother a little. Her play life consists in making candy, 
playing the piano, playing cards, dancing, skating, swim- 
ming, tennis, hikes, "movies," in which she is greatly inter- 
ested; reading, very little. 

Girl, twelve and one half. — Rises somewhere between six 
thirty and seven o'clock; after breakfast runs an errand; 
puts her room in order or studies until school time. After 
school hours she goes out for a romp or skates, plays 
football or does anything that is like a tomboy — runs, 
climbs, or races around ths house like a boy. Then she 
studies a while or helps do up the work. She will read 
if the weather is bad. Doesn't like to be alone but is satis- 
fied if only a baby or cat is with her for company. She 
likes to cook better than anything else; cares very little 
for the "movies" and goes seldom; is apt to criticize 
things seen or heard; likes picnics and socials. She is 
never idle if there is anything she can do. 

Boy, thirteen. — Spare time spent playing games, espe- 
cially team play, going walking through the woods in an 
exploring and adventurous frame of mind, reading stories 
of adventure, experimenting in chemistry and mechanics 
and preparing school assignments. His chief interest is in 
chemistry since he has a chemical set. His older brother 
is interested in chemistry at high school and assists him 
in his experiments. He seems to admire his older brother 
very much; is very fond of reading and of the "movies." 

These reports are from boys and girls living in a city of 
thirty-one thousand population, and all are in Sunday 
schools. They are fairly typical reports in that the city is 
small enough to permit real approach to nature in the 
near-by woods and fields, yet has the city flavor in the 
organized life of the school, Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, 
Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, 
Boys' and Girls' Departments. 

It should be noted, however, that the rural or farm boy 
and girl are not here; nor are the Catholic or Jewish ele- 
ments of the population represented. The cases are suf- 



THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 17 

ficient, nevertheless, to suggest what are the interests of 
those with whom we deal in our Sunday schools and indi- 
cate with clearness how the spare hours are passed. 1 

It is obvious that the unused time is spent by boy and 
girl alike in seeking fun, in extending knowledge, in gain- 
ing expertness and skill, or in finding emotional satisfac- 
tion. Nerves, muscles, and brain are never idle during 
the waking hours, but are working incessantly to satisfy 
the craving for life and more of life. Undirected by home 
ideals or group organization, these hours are open for all 
kinds of unfortunate experiments. On the contrary, under 
the stimulation of sympathetic home environment or of 
group leadership, they become some of the richest because 
some of the most original experiences of life. In the 
give-and-take of group play, in the experiment of chemis- 
try or of construction, in the widening knowledge and prac- 
tice of woodcraft, in voluntary reading — sought because it 
satisfies some particular desire of the hour — the boys and 
the girls are building up bone and muscle, gaining coordina- 
tion of brain and hand, and learning to live a self-directed, 
self-controlled life. 

3. The many-sided interests. For the worker with 
intermediates this information as to his pupil's world 
should discover the highly complex forces that are at work 
making the moral and religious character that is develop- 
ing under his very eyes. It indicates that we are, in our 
Sunday-school classes, touching at a single point only or, 
at most, at a few points the stream of impressions, the 
many-motived life forces that are contributing to the 
emergence of a personality. Does it not indicate that our 
task is a larger one than we are accustomed to think? 
Must we not in some fashion get into the whole current 
of this boy's, this girl's life so as to permeate the whole 
with religious significance? Can we capture the youth's 
ideals, stimulate his emotions, and help him wisely to 



1 A still wider inquiry is found in the Cleveland survey, which will supply 
some of the elements lacking in the above records. 



18 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

choose his standards unless we become, not merely his 
instructor, but genuinely his comrade, his confederate in 
all the enterprises of his life — his school and studies, his 
work and play, his building and experimenting, his reading 
and his "movie" craze? Only as we learn to know his 
inner needs and desires and participate in his victories, his 
defeats, his problems, and his longings can we become in 
any true sense his spiritual leaders. 

4. Physical growth. Look now at the boy and the girl 
themselves, at their bodies and their minds, as, at about 
the twelfth year, they pass from childhood into ado- 
lescence. 

In so far as the child is still a school child, his life 
appears little different in its outward manifestations from 
that of the boys and girls whose places have been made 
vacant by promotion. Yet is life just the same? Is he 
the same boy, is she the same girl who only a few days 
ago sat in the lower grades? Is the outlook upon life 
affected by the twelfth birthday and by the subsequent 
development in bodily growth, in intellectual quickening, in 
social expansion, and in inner emotional upheaval? 

Despite individual differences certain clearly marked 
changes are taking place which we must observe. For 
twelve years nature has been busy maturing a boy or a 
girl. "With decreasing rapidity the body has gone on en- 
larging itself by multiplication of cells. At first, with 
astonishing quickness, the baby has grown into the stature 
of the child. Then a pause has come when, slowly but 
surely, the child has gone on building up bone and muscle, 
until at twelve the boy has reached a height of about 
fifty-five inches, while his sister at the same age has 
attained a height of about fifty-six inches. But now these 
children, to play their part in the larger drama of life, 
begin to grow with amazing rapidity, to shoot up and to 
thicken out so as to approximate the proportions nec- 
essary to adult life. By fifteen the boys have attained 
92 per cent of their adult height and 72 per cent of their 



THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 19 

weight; at the same age the girls have reached 97 per 
cent of their height and 90 per cent of their mature 
weight. 

This means that bone and muscle have expanded suffi- 
ciently to give the youth new and hitherto unknown pro- 
portions. When we recall that between nine and twelve 
both boys and girls have reached a comparatively stabilized 
condition — a condition in which balance and poise pre- 
dominate, when eye and ear, hand and foot, work together 
harmoniously because during twelve years they have slowly 
acquired coordination — and then think how the newly 
attained and entirely unpracticed physical expansion throws 
coordination out of balance, we need not be surprised that 
awkwardness, lack of grace, and self-consciousness manifest 
themselves. 

But bodily expansion is, after all, not the whole of the 
story. Early, in the middle, or late in this period the gen- 
erative organs begin to grow toward adult size and get 
ready to function. Pubic hair appears, indicative of adult- 
hood, and restiveness becomes manifest. All the bodily 
growth just described, as truly as sex development, has been 
part of nature's program to bring the child to full maturity. 
Shoulders broaden, hips expand, lungs increase in capacity, 
and the heart, to supply all this enlarged mechanism with 
abundance of blood, works ■ overtime, enlarging itself by 
its own exertions. With boys the larynx grows, and the 
vocal cords thicken, changing the voice pitch to deep 
masculine tones. In the intervening stage of change chaos 
appears in the vocal range, adding to the self-consciousness 
of the lad. 

The body-building process is not complete by fifteen, but, 
like a new house, the framework is pushed up rapidly, and 
the outlines of the new structure are soon acquired. In the 
three years we are considering the boy leaves behind for- 
ever his boyhood, and the girl her girlhood. They have 
been furnished with a new body, with a hitherto unknown 
instinct, and must learn again to coordinate the new bodily 



20 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

mechanism. If we adults in the next three years should 
add from six to twelve inches to our stature, if we should 
suddenly find ourselves possessed of an entirely new in- 
stinct seeking expression, if we should find our voices 
sliding about in spite of our noblest efforts, and if we dis- 
covered that these new experiences had thrown us out of 
balance, giving us the task of gaining a fresh mastery over 
our bodies and our minds, perchance we should better 
appreciate the position of the intermediates. We should 
be quite as awkward, quite as self-conscious, and, by those 
who had gone so far past the experience as to forget it, not 
less difficult to understand. 

5. Mental and social development. We have not yet 
fully analyzed the situation. We have been thinking largely 
in terms of bodily growth and of the consequent reaction 
of the child to these new bodily experiences. But some- 
thing has been going on within — something besides rapid 
cell development. Keeping pace with this physical expan- 
sion are a mental and a social development no less impor- 
tant. The enlarged curriculum of the schools is possible 
only because of the new mental powers. The days of the 
limited intellectual capacity are superseded by an era of 
mental awakening. Association of ideas with each other 
is more rapidly made, and logical processes can be car- 
ried out more readily. Imagination takes new direction. 
The quest for truth becomes a passion, because the new 
mental grasp makes possible the exact steps in the rea- 
soning process. Self-consciousness becomes social con- 
sciousness; and before this age is passed, the authority of 
the group is final for one's conduct. "We all do that," or 
''Everybody does this," or "No one does it in that way" are 
the phrases that indicate the almost slavish devotion of 
youth to the social group in which his lot is cast. 

The craving for social life expresses itself in two gen- 
eral directions: First, in seeking the companionship of 
those of their own years. Boys find their chums or pals, 
while girls likewise adopt the same title for their friends. 



THE INTERMEDIATE AND HIS WORLD 21 

This distinction exists between the sexes, however — that 
the boys bind themselves together in groups or gangs, while 
their sisters are content with the intimacies of a single 
comrade. The gang is a group of chums held together by 
group loyalty. The leader of the group is one of the group. 
Where girls combine in numbers, the ties holding the 
group together seem to radiate from the leader to each of 
the number rather than, as in the case of boys, from mem- 
ber to member. Having now arrived at an age permitting 
greater freedom of action, these youths seek companion- 
ships wider than the home circle or the immediate contacts 
of school life. By a process of social gravitation these 
groups are formed, cemented together by common activity 
and common feelings of independence and secrecy. Not 
to be one of a gang means to be cut off from the com- 
monly accepted form of social living. As we have seen, 
many of the out-of-school hours of these years are spent 
in the gang or with the chum, talking, working, playing, 
building, or roaming the fields and woods if geographical 
proximity permits. We shall never be able to understand 
the interests and life of the young until we unravel the 
mystery of the gang. 

A second direction which the social spirit takes is to 
seek recognition of adult life. To be independent like adults, 
to participate in the plans of the family, the church, the 
neighborhood, is the ambition of every wholesome boy or 
girl. Youth thrusts itself into adult life. No wonder that 
its inexperience is conspicuous. But only by such sharing 
can the social nature properly mature, and only so can 
experience be gained. If, in the midst of such endeavor, 
the natural timidity of the child is occasionally reflected, 
no one need wonder. It is a new world into which youth is 
venturing, seeking to find its way, yet ever aware of its 
own limitations. 

6. The call to leadership. In their perplexity and long- 
ing the boy and the girl fasten upon their hero, endowing 
him with every conceivable grace and charm, hoping 



22 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

against hope that this hero will deign to look upon them 
and to reward their fidelity by some token of esteem. 
In the home and out of it the young during these years 
covet consideration and recognition from those older, ask- 
ing that their own expanding powers of self-direction and 
of serious reflection shall count in the plans of the mature 
world of which they already feel themselves almost a part. 
Here lies straight within his grasp the opportunity of 
the intermediate worker. The call of youth to share his 
life with adult life, the demand for a hero, a confidant — 
the one who shall help unravel the mysteries of life and 
help him understand himself in his new being and his 
new relations — is the call of God for intermediate leader- 
ship. 

Questions 

1. How many hours do the pupils of your community 
spend in the public schools? Get exact information. Ob- 
serve carefully how they spend the remainder of their time. 

2. What physical characteristics mark the intermediates? 

3. How does the mental life develop in these years? 

4. What differences in social development between boys 
and girls are to be found? 

5. Why must the worker with intermediates be a real 
leader? 

Observation 

Consider for three or four days the activities of some 
boy or girl of twelve to fifteen years of age. Note (1) what 
he does, (2) his chief interests, (3) his attitude toward 
home, school, and work. Keep notes upon your observa- 
tion and compare them with the statements found in this 
chapter. 



CHAPTER II 
THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 

Students from fifteen to seventeen years of age consti- 
tute two quite distinct groups: first are those who, continu- 
ing their education, are attendants upon some high school 
or academy; the second and larger group is made up of 
those who have left school for work and those who are 
living at home, dependents upon the family for support. 
Despite the widespread influence and distribution of free 
public high schools in our country it is unfortunately true 
that relatively few American children avail themselves of 
their benefits. Economic necessity, ignorance, lack of acces- 
sibility, result in these opportunities being passed by. 

On the other hand, the multiplication of night schools in 
our cities and the development in the business world of 
the realization that trained workers are more valuable 
than untrained have tended to supplement the meager edu- 
cational training of those who have for one reason or 
another left the grades. Notwithstanding this, it is safe to 
assume that the far larger proportion of our youth of the 
years under discussion are working boys and girls who, 
having left behind the days of formal education, are now 
embarked upon some business career. The insistent demand 
of our factory age is for the services, during the prime of 
life, of both sexes; and the spirit of independence drives 
these young workers forth to seek their fortunes in the 
channels of trade and industry. 

1. Workers and high-school students in the depart- 
ment. It is a startling fact, however, that the senior ranks 
in the Sunday schools are made up predominantly from the 
smaller group — from those who are still in school. This 
is in part accounted for by the fact that the foreign-born 
child or the child of foreign-born parents is more likely 

23 



24 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

to be a Jew or a Catholic than to belong to a family reached 
by the Protestant faith. It is also possible that American 
young people, who have broken with the traditions of edu- 
cational discipline and so have too meager training to 
enjoy reading or study, find little in the Sunday school to 
attract them. Still further, we should not forget the temp- 
tation that a free day in the week has for those housed 
in factory or store for the other six days. Again, it is 
doubtful if we, who are most interested in making the 
Sunday school minister to all, have yet discovered the inter- 
ests of these workers sufficiently to plan our worship, our 
lessons, and our activities so as to fit their needs. At any 
rate, for one reason or another, we find that our Sunday- 
school constituency in the Senior Department is for the 
most part made up of high-school boys and girls, conspic- 
uous exceptions being found chiefly in our rural churches. 

Any discussion of the senior pupil, therefore, will have to 
divide itself into two distinct parts: first, a discussion of 
the high-school group; and, second, a discussion of the 
remaining members. It is well at the outset to bear in 
mind that these two groups are not by nature different. 
They are animated by the same natural desires, they are 
passing through the same physiological development and 
the consequent psychological and social process. The dif- 
ferences are due entirely to their environment. One group 
is as good as the other. Both are of equal importance in 
the eyes of their Creator and in the hearts of their Sunday- 
school teachers and friends. It is with no attempt to estab- 
lish superiority or inferiority between them or in esti- 
mates of them that one proceeds on this dual basis; rather 
it is that one may more certainly understand each group 
and, in consequence, the better minister to it. 

2. The high-school senior. What do the high-school 
boy and girl do? How is their life spent? What are their 
interests and how do they attempt to satisfy those interests? 
These are questions of first importance to one who would be 
the leader of such a group. 



THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 25 

Approximately five and one half hours each week day, 
Saturday excepted, are spent in school. The number of 
hours does not differ greatly from the time thus consumed 
in the grades; but the nature of the high-school curriculum 
and the methods employed are so different that entrance 
into high school marks a decided turning point. The 
median age of entrance in one Iowa school was found to be 
fourteen and nine tenths, which makes the Senior Depart- 
ment in our Sunday schools coincide quite closely with the 
period spent in this branch of the public school. 1 

King writes: 

To many a pupil the high school opens as a new world 
of mysterious possibilities. This attitude of eager anticipa- 
tion is well expressed by one student who writes: "I still 
feel the thrill of expectancy with which, for example, I en- 
tered upon the study of Latin. The teacher was the guide. 
She knew Latin land, and we were eager to follow her 
through that delightful country. My English work was not 
a gray monotony of themes. It was colored with the pur- 
ple of imagination." "It was the greatest event of my life 
when I entered the academy as a freshman. " And yet the 
transition is often effected with great difficulty. Another 
says: "It was with a great deal of pleasure that I looked 
forward to my entrance into the high school. Why I was 
going I never seriously considered; I just took it for 
granted as did my parents that I should go through. But 
my real entrance was far from what I had pictured it to 
be in my mind. In the grades there had always been a con- 
genial, homelike atmosphere which completely dominated 
everything; but in the high school I came face to face with 
an absolutely different environment, and many a time dur- 
ing my first year's work I wished I were back in that dear 
old grammar school which I had learned to love and to 
respect!" 

Another writes: "After having been the important A 
Class of the last grade of grammar school it seemed strange 
to find ourselves submerged in a larger group in high 
school. One especial difficulty was the getting accustomed 
to having different teachers for every subject, the getting 
acquainted with the teachers, and the fear that they might 
not like us. 

iFrom The High-School Age, p. 187, by Irving King, copyright, 1914. Used 
by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. 



26 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

"I looked upon everything at that time as being big. 
The teachers seemed to me as being very noted and know- 
ing very much, and for these reasons I stood in awe of 
them. Then, I felt that there was not that close relation- 
ship between pupil and teacher there had been in the 
lower grades. Sometimes I thought the teachers were not 
very religious because they scolded when I thought they 
ought to be kind and helpful. 

"But when I came to my sophomore year,, I looked upon 
things differently and partly overcame this feeling of awe 
and timidity. I had more confidence in myself and no 
longer felt my schoolmates were any bigger than myself. 
Moreover, I realized that the instructors were not so distant 
after all; for on several occasions, both in lessons and in 
programs, were we thrown together, and each time the 
instructors put forth great effort to show their personal 
interest in us. . . . 

"In spite of difficulty of adjustment when entering the 
high school I felt a renewed interest in school work. The 
increased field of work together with the less close super- 
vision made me feel more independence, more responsibility, 
in regard to that work. . . ." 

Another says: "One thing that stands uppermost in my 
mind was the lack of interest on the part of the teachers in 
helping the pupil in selecting his course of study." 1 

These reports, from some who have experienced the 
transition from grammar to high-school grades, clearly indi- 
cate the turning point which this experience becomes. Sun- 
day-school workers with seniors should recognize the fact 
that school now becomes something more, something new 
and different. It becomes a testing time, bringing to the 
fore certain mental and moral traits and becoming the 
environment, mental and social, in which character is 
being wrought out. The richness of the high-school curricu- 
lum, as has already been noted, is made possible by the 
widening scope of the mental life, while, in turn, the 
enlarged range of studies tends further and further to 
widen this scope. The larger freedom of high-school life 
is possible only because life is achieving freedom: but, 
likewise, this increased freedom of action is in itself tending 



*See The High-School Age, Irving King, The Bobbs-Mcrrill Company. 



THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 27 

further and further to the achievement of freedom in the 
individuals. 

School is a world in which the enlarging personality 
finds a sympathetic and well-articulated social and mental 
complex wherein it may pursue still further its pwn unfold- 
ing. To those who become happily adjusted to its studies, 
to its close work, to its self-directed clubs and social 
groups, and to its voluntary friendships and confidences 
between student and student, and between student and 
teacher, school life furnishes a fortunate world in which 
youth learns to live by living. 

Obviously the religious teacher of high-school students 
should know this life — its studies, its social activities, its 
athletic strivings, its viewpoint. To dismiss the world of 
the school as merely preparatory to life itself is far from 
appreciating what is going on, for high-school life has 
become not preparation for life but life itself, lived in a 
most intense manner and subject to the pressure of the 
same emotions and to similar motives and judgments as 
the world outside the school. For the student must no 
longer think of school life as filled with books and lessons 
alone. Rightly or wrongly the day has for the student not 
alone lessons to learn and to recite but friendships to 
renew, social adjustments to make; and perhaps the more 
vital present interest of the school is found in these by- 
products of school experiences. 

Says a Sunday-school teacher: 

Every morning as I go into town to my office I know at 
a certain corner I will be joined on the car by a fourteen- 
and-a-half year old, tall, bob-haired girl, starting on her 
way to school. School for her is a kind of duty life has 
imposed upon her, where, for five and one-half hours each 
day, not to mention the extras for music, she suffers a 
restraint not altogether desirable and yet not wholly with- 
out some attractions; because it is a meeting place for all 
her associates — boys and girls — and, more especially, the 
boys are particularly interesting to her. . . . Each day she 
has some wonderful and new experiences to relate about 
one [boy] seemingly quite vital from her viewpoint. 



28 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Here we find, not at all uncommonly, the interest in the 
opposite sex becoming dominant in the school life, vastly 
more absorbing than book or other interests, athletics 
excepted, of which this young lady is very fond. 

Athletics, capable of efficient organization, often become 
the chief interest in the lives of students, the day's school 
work taking flavor from the gymnasium or the baseball or 
football field. Debates, literary contests, school publica- 
tions, class elections, and social functions, all enter into 
what we term "high-school life," each contributing some- 
thing to experience and character. It is the world for 
those who have entered in. 

The life outside of school is a reflection and an extension 
of the school experience. The world of nature lures to 
further exploration, undertaken voluntarily but colored in 
the process by the knowledge built up in the laboratory or 
the classroom. If we should list the spare-time activities 
of these boys and girls, we should find that hunting, fish- 
ing, swimming, trap setting, football, baseball, basketball, 
tennis, building canoes, working with chemicals, making fly- 
ing machines, cooking, candy making, sewing, knitting, 
crocheting, and tatting, together with such slight duties as 
the home demands, are the absorbing occupations. 

The sense of independence demands money, as does also 
the desire to possess what only money can purchase. Hence 
we shall find that many spend some of their spare time in 
earning money by means of paper routes, working in 
stores and offices, collecting accounts, and in various other 
ways. 

We must never forget that the demand for romanticism 
at this age leads to much reading or to the modern sub- 
stitute for reading, the enjoyment of the "movie." These 
two activities must be added to the above before we can get 
a comprehensive view of the world in which the high- 
school boy and girl live. 

3. The senior in the business world. Quite in con- 
trast to the program already discovered is the life of those 



THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 29 

who have left school to enter the business world. It may 
be that because we too are in that world we think we 
know quite fully what their lives are like. May it not be 
possible that our very proximity has spoiled our perspective, 
and that we need to examine afresh what the experiences of 
these, our juniors, are? 

Those who at this early age have entered the doors 
of commerce and trade have brought with them meager 
equipment for their tasks. Their schooling has been trun- 
cated at twelve or fourteen, leaving them with a scattered 
accumulation of information not well organized nor well 
mastered. This is not the fault of the school system, as 
many would believe, but the necessary consequence of 
immaturity. Let the system bear all the blame that is due 
it, still we must recall that the child in the few years 
that have passed since it entered school has had to accom- 
plish prodigious things. It is a marvel that so much is 
done. And if a narrowing of studies be sought in the 
hopes of greater expertness in each branch, we must bal- 
ance that advantage against the too meager background of 
experience obvious in the lives of these pupils. 

Be that as it may, here they are, these boys and girls 
of fifteen to seventeen, seeking admission to business, 
blessed with bodies expanding into full maturity, brains 
active and ready for new ideas, and hands unskilled but 
eager to become skillful. That is, the foregoing is true 
if they have had good heritage and sufficient food and 
careful rearing. Unfortunately, too many come from the 
ranks of those who know not how to feed and rear aright, 
or, knowing, are too poor to put their knowledge into 
practice. These latter bring with them bodies needing good 
food, fresh air, and play, none of which is the business 
world likely to supply them with in abundance. School has 
given no expertness which the business world can use, for 
penmanship has not developed to a satisfactory stage, 
spelling is still wretchedly mastered, and the hands are 
untrained to any specific endeavor. 



30 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

It is obvious that industry, at its own expense, must 
train these workers to become efficient — a long and costly- 
process. Yet certain advantages accrue both to the busi- 
ness man and to the youth. The mind is plastic and easily 
lends itself to training, such training in particular as busi- 
ness demands. Short-cut methods in accounting, business 
forms in the office, machine technique in the factory, store 
routine behind the counter or in the wrapping room, are 
all possible upon the basis of youth's teachableness. More 
than that, the future is before the boy and the girl, a future 
full of possibilities of promotion, of appreciation, and of 
success. The four high-school years mean for the business 
youth four years of preparation in the fundamentals of his 
life's future work. 

When we come to examine the day's work in detail we are 
confronted with a round of duties, which in time tend to 
become quite as monotonous and humdrum as the round of 
school tasks. It is well to remember that enthusiastic 
participation in each day's undertaking is the best prepara- 
tion for promotion; but when the relation between the 
present task and its final completion is far removed; when 
the sewing of a glove, the knitting of a stocking, the tending 
of a loom, the wrapping of a package, the collection of a 
bill, the sweeping of a store, the pushing of a truck, and 
the final profits of the establishment which mean the suc- 
cess or failure of the enterprise are too far removed to 
see or to feel the correlation, shall we wonder that the 
interest flags, enthusiasm wanes, and that the business task 
becomes a routine from which the young seek release at 
the earliest possible moment? It is safe to say that, even 
more than with those in the high school, the day is spent 
as the necessary drudgery of living while the vital interests 
of life are found elsewhere. Yet the business hours, because 
of their very bulk, constitute the major portion of the 
life of these youths. 

How far business shall develop the noblest and best 
within one is determined by how large self-direction is 



THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 31 

possible under the system. For these boys and girls are 
achieving freedom as well as are their friends in school. 
In such positions as the merest handworker in a mill or 
factory little is done to stimulate initiative or to arouse 
latent possibilities. It is little wonder that many of 
these workers learn to lead a treadmill existence futured 
by no promise of large success. On the other hand, many 
industries are stimulating originality by bonuses for new 
ideas and giving immediate recognition to those betraying 
anything that looks like real ability. 

Fortunately, on the whole, the business world prefers 
that its young shall do well, grow in ability and in charac- 
ter, and become in the years before them capable citizens. 
And it is increasingly apparent that more and more busi- 
ness concerns are taking a watchful and active interest 
in the lives of their employees, young and old. 

Here, then, amid these surroundings, in contact with fel- 
low employees of their own age and older, of their own sex 
or both sexes, these boys and girls must learn to adjust 
themselves to social living, to discover the inherent capaci- 
ties within them, and to gain self-mastery. Their own 
scant preparation for the task is their greatest handicap. 
The want of a sympathetic and an understanding leader 
is their greatest misfortune. 

Out of business hours what do they do? For those who 
wish to go on with their educational preparation there 
are lessons which consume several evenings of the week; 
for others home duties take a portion of their time. The 
remaining hours are theirs to spend as they please; for 
with going to work comes freedom to go about; and many 
are for the first time away from home. In the places of 
employment are congenial companions who are ready to 
join in utilizing the unused portions of the day. Lacking 
initiative to provide their own entertainment, many seek 
relief from weariness and idleness in the '"movie," the 
dance hall, in reading, or in the society of their kind. The 
gang spirit, as active among the workers as among the 



32 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

school constituency, displays itself in groups who seek 
some convenient rendezvous. Athletics come in for a par: 
of the spare hours. Perhaps nowhere does the working 
boy or girl display a greater paucity of initiative than in 
his recreations. Commercialized forms of amusement, ready 
made, prove most attractive and stimulating. The settle- 
ment worker and the school teacher who attempt social 
service of this sort alone know how difficult it is to organize 
the play life of these young people. "Beaus and clothes" 
take a large place in the minds of the girls, and it is fair 
to believe that boys have corresponding interests. 

4. The physical and psychological development of 
seniors. In the preceding chapter it was pointed out that 
nature had about completed her body-building processes by 
fifteen. It is necessary to consider what the years before 
us further accomplish for the young. And here we may 
consider both classes — worker and high-school student — 
alike. Foremost is the emotional unrest due to the pres- 
ence of new powers and the life adjustments that are taking 
place. This emotional unrest manifests itself in nervous 
behavior, in giggles and laughter,, in boisterous display of 
self, at times in hysterical tears, in sex consciousness in 
the presence of those to whom nature is attracting, in 
tempestuous outbursts of passion, in melancholy brooding, 
in unbounded enthusiasm of greater or less duration. No 
one person exhibits all these characteristics, but all are 
shown by some and more than one by many. 

Intellectually the life seeks knowledge, certifies itself of 
the truthfulness of accepted ideas by experiment, attempts 
to discover new and different avenues of adventure, tries 
out various tastes, sights, and sounds just to see what they 
are like, admires expertness in any line, and seeks to attain 
such expertness for itself, finds the actual accomplishment 
of its object a tiresome process, so frequently shifts its 
activity in consequence, allows its imagination wide range 
— building its air castles and seeking its knights-errant. 

This is the romanticizing period of life, just entered upon 



THE SENIOR AND HIS WORLD 33 

and destined to continue through much of the succeeding 
department. The range of interest in the opposite sex 
varies all the way from a diffused interest in boys in gen- 
eral to passionate devotion to the object of its desire. 
Juliet and Viola, Olivia and Rosalind, were of this age, as 
well as Romeo and Hamlet. 

5. The religious development of seniors. Morally and 
religiously this is the time of testing conventions, of trying 
for oneself what the inner meaning of morals and religion 
may be. It is, too, the time of greatest reverence for con- 
ventions, paradoxical as that may sound, when the ritual 
and the solemn service find a responsive chord in the 
heart of youth. Now is the time of high resolve with little 
practice or strength gained by practice to sustain the 
aspirations. Truly this is the trying time of life, "when 
a little good goes further for good, and a little evil goes 
further for evil than at any other period of life." It is 
the time when the steadying hand of a friend who is 
older and who knows, who expects the best, yet is willing 
to trust the inexperience of youth, whose sympathies are 
broad yet deep, and whose confidence is unshaken though 
always sensitive to moods and impulses, is most needed and 
valued. The leader of seniors may become that friend. 

Questions 

1. Are the larger proportion of the senior members of 
your Sunday school in school or in business life? 

2. In addition to teaching lessons what has the high 
school of your community done for its students? 

3. With how many of your pupils is reading a craze just 
now? the "movie"? wireless? woodcraft? 

4. Do your pupils who are engaged in business show 
greater enthusiasm for their work than do the high-school 
students for their task? How do you know? 

Obsekvation 
Using a boy or girl between fifteen and eighteen, follow 
the observation suggestions found in Chapter I. 



CHAPTER III 
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 

As the source of many of the changes that are taking 
place in the transition from childhood to youth lies in the 
fact of sex development, it is necessary to come to a thor- 
ough understanding of this significant physiological phe- 
nomenon, for here is found the key that shall unlock the 
mystery of all these strange, anomalous contradictions and 
amazing outbursts so frequently found in the growing boy 
or girl. It is a physiological fact, primarily, but its influ- 
ence radiates to every department of life; to the ideas and 
ideals quite as much as to the bodily habits and emotional 
reactions. One is hardly prepared to consider the spiritual 
and moral welfare of youth who is not familiar with the 
mechanism of nature for producing a man out of the boy 
or a woman out of the girl. 

1. Sex development and bodily growth. The first 
and most easily observed fact is the close correlation 
between sex development and bodily growth. The two are 
so intimately related that we are safe in assuming that 
sudden increase in growth of the body is evidence of ac- 
companying sex development. Delayed bodily growth is 
likewise a fair indication of delayed physiological pro- 
gress. One must keep in mind, of course, that heredity 
plays a part in the amount of physical growth, and one 
should reckon the relative bodily expansion rather than 
the absolute increase in height or weight. It is safe, 
then, to conclude that sex development is a cause, an effect, 
or a concomitant of general physical growth. Either the 
former produces the latter, or the latter produces the 
former, or both are affected by a common cause. The 
two go hand in hand, so that whatever affects the one is 
certain to affect the other. Normal, healthy bodily devel- 

34 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 35 

opraent is the best preparation for the normal, healthy 
beginning of sex life. Physical or mental stimulants, nar- 
cotics, unwholesome diet, insufficient nourishment, lack of 
exercise, damaging fatigue, or any other factor that devi- 
talizes or stunts the physical organism is certain to react 
deleteriously upon the ripening of sex functioning. 

2 External and internal manifestations of sex de- 
velopment. The second most obvious fact regarding sex 
maturing is the growth of pubic hair and the increase in 
size of the external generative organs. These are nature's 
announcement to youth of a change that is going on within 
his physical being. The relative suddenness of the appear- 
ance of these signs and the rapidity of their development 
are frequent causes of curiosity in the boy or girl, leading 
sometimes to morbid and unwholesome speculation, some- 
times to unfortunate practices. 

These external manifestations of change are followed at 
a short interval by functioning of the internal sex mechan- 
ism startlingly announced to the girl by her menstrual 
periods, and to the boy, not infrequently, by nightly 
emissions. What has really taken place is that nature has 
at last arrived at the time when the body must be perfected 
to carry on the life processes of the race; to wiiich end 
the ovaries of the girl begin to exude germ ova, and the 
testicles of the' boy to produce spermatozoa for their fer- 
tilizations. These internal glands have lain dormant until 
now. But with their growth and functioning has come a 
new day in the life of the child. 

3. Sex instruction and training. Such has been the 
ignorance in the past that this momentous change has 
come upon our pupils unawares, and, uninstructed by father 
and mother, the youth is compelled to face the grave experi- 
ences unwarned and uninstructed. From such culpable 
parental neglect comes untold injury to the growing boy 
and girl. Often not only physical injury ensues but still 
more serious mental and moral damage. 

Obviously sex instruction is needed. The natural per- 



36 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

sons to give such instruction are the parents. But, unfor- 
tunately, they are often ignorant or, when wise, are not 
always brave for the task. Long training in false modesty 
has sealed their lips, and, in consequence, children are left 
to suffer physical and mental degradation. Some have sub- 
stituted books for the more practical and efficient personal 
helpfulness. Such books, however, while furnishing the 
requisite information, leave the imagination to roam unin- 
terrupted over the emotional excitation of sex imagery. 
Far better is it to learn of these matters directly by word 
of mouth from those whose conversation is least stimu- 
lating to unwholesome ideas. Until parents have been 
trained to do their duty by their children, it will remain 
the task of the public-school teacher and of the Sunday- 
school teacher to furnish such information as is essential 
to the health and morals of the rising generation. 

We begin to see, then, what sex development really is. 
It is nature's method for continuing the life of the race. 
It is physiological development, neither moral nor im- 
moral in itself. It cannot be ignored, nor should its acquire- 
ment submit youth to needless anxiety nor to morbid 
speculation. It is a fact of our physical being, comparable 
to the function of eating and drinking, with this differ- 
ence — that the latter is far more a personal and individual 
matter, while the former is not a personal matter alone but 
primarily a social matter. 

But reproductive development is more than a physio- 
logical process. With the dawning of these physical powers 
comes the awakening of a new instinct. As many studies 
of child life have conclusively proved, it is not true that 
interest in sex begins only at the beginning of puberty. 
But it is at this time the new instinct makes itself com- 
mandingly felt. It cannot be put on\ And an instinct is 
more than a physical matter. It involves mental processes 
as well. Sex enters consciously into our waking and sleep- 
ing life and its force is felt in many divergent channels. 
New sensations are discovered, and new emotions begin 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 37 

to force their attentions upon one. Though the youth may 
not be aware of their source, these sensations and emo- 
tions pervade the very tissue of his life. 

4. Differences between boys and girls. But we must 
return to the physiological fact of sex and note certain 
variations. First of all is the difference between boys and 
girls. In general, girls mature from a year and a half to 
two years earlier than boys. As general maturity follows 
coincidently with sex maturity, it follows that girls are in 
general a year or more ahead of boys of their own ages. 
"Boys are so silly," one girl put it; and undoubtedly there 
is on the part of most girls a feeling of superiority of view- 
point. On the other hand, one must remember that the 
boys overtake the girls in the middle teens, the equality 
of the sexes being thus resumed. These differences in the 
progress of development reflect themselves in the points at 
which social interests are widely divergent and also at the 
points at which they again draw together. No worker 
with these years can ignore the natural differences thus 
accentuated. In programs of recreation and fellowship it 
is necessary to utilize natural likes and dislikes as they 
appear. No one can force real cooperation between boys 
and girls where such cooperation is against the natural 
propensities of their being. But later it will be necessary 
with as great precision to reckon with the common interests 
of both sexes. 

But the difference between the sexes does not end with 
variation as to the age of maturity. Nature has set out to 
differentiate the sexes, and increasingly we must expect 
to see the peculiarities of each group make themselves 
apparent. Says Miss Moxcey: 

Up to this time most sex differences in activity between 
boys and girls are artificial. The average ten-year-old 
girl who has had a free chance and proper clothing can 
climb a tree, "skin a cat" as neatly, "chin" a bar as many 
times — yes, and bat a ball as far — as a boy of the same 
age. It is not certain that she can throw the ball as far 
but she can skate as well. Indeed, the fact that they do 



38 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

not settle questions of superiority in quite as primitive 
a fashion as their brothers was due, if the testimony of 
many older girls is not to be barred as unreliable memory, 
not to any difference in the fighting instinct but to adult 
authority. There may, however, have been a greater 
instinctive submission to that authority. 1 

But with the dawning of the new life the characteristics 
of the sex appear in each group. The boys become more 
masculine and the girls more feminine. We need not 
inquire in how far this transition of ideals is determined 
by nature and how much by environment. It is safe to 
assert that consciousness of sex tends to draw the two 
groups apart, and in their separation each is building up 
those qualities that determine his future outlook. Likely 
we have in the past overstressed the inherent differences. 
But when due consideration is given to the influence of 
Mrs. Grundy, we have to admit that during these years a 
change, slow or sudden, is going on, the end of which is 
the larger life of the race. 

5. The social grouping of each. sex. The contrast 
of importance to the worker with intermediates and seniors 
is the divergent ways in which the social groupings are 
wrought within each group. The boy has his chum and his 
hero — the former, of his own age; the latter, his confidant, 
older than himself, embodying all that he idealizes. The 
girl too has her chum of her own age and also someone 
whom she adores — a young woman who possesses all the 
charms and graces that the girl would attain. It is inter- 
esting to note that these older personages embody for each 
sex the peculiar qualities toward which nature is pushing 
on each person. If it is insisted that the boy previously 
worships his father as his hero, and the girl her mother as 
her heroine, it is well to remember that the boy equally 
admires his mother's qualities and finds in her a confidante 
more satisfactory to his childish needs than is found in 
the paternal parent; while, conversely, the girl as fre- 



1 Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, page 68. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 39 

quently seeks her hero and ideal not in the feminine per- 
sonality of her mother but in the masculine parent. At this 
age each sex seeks its ideal in personality endowed with 
the peculiar ideals of the group. Further: 

Before the boy finds life not worth living without the 
girl, and before he discusses the universe with his one com- 
pletely understanding chum, during all the vital formative 
period of early adolescence, first and foremost, the law of 
the boy's life is loyalty to the gang. Does anything in the 
girl's life correspond to the boy's gang? ... A boy forms 
a gang with other boys, because they want to do some- 
thing, and this takes cooperation. We are beginning to 
see that from time immemorial the little girl's education 
has made her lose some stages from her development. The 
taboo on active physical play has thrown her back on intro- 
spection. . . . She thus becomes engrossed in her own self, 
her own thoughts, ambitions, and feelings. With these as 
her primary interests companionship is sought for the pur- 
pose of expressing these inner attitudes, and for this one 
companion at a time is enough; more are embarrassing. . . . 

But the raw social impulse of this stage of development 
is too strong to be entirely submerged. She must have 
people about her and, at times, plenty of them. Then it is 
that cliques are formed among several pairs of chums. 
Under the conditions of its formation the group must needs 
be small. Habit quickly makes it an exclusive thing, and 
its pettiness becomes the despair of mother and teacher. 1 

Whether or not Miss Moxcey's explanation of the absence 
of girls' gangs is altogether satisfactory, one cannot deny 
the accuracy of the description of the differences manifest 
between the social life of the teen-age boys and that of the 
girls of the same age. Unlike the junior boys and girls' 
whose social experiences parallel each other at every point, 
the intermediate and senior organizations stand in striking 
contrast to each other, and all social effort on behalf of 
this group will need to be articulated according to these 
differences. 

When groups of girls, commensurate to the size of the 
boys' gangs, are formed under the initiation of a strong 



1 Girlhood and Character, Moxoey, pages 109-10. 



40 



LEADERS OF YOUTH 



leader, they are held together, as Miss Moxcey has so well 
shown, by the adhesive power that exists between each girl 
and the leader; whereas in the gangs of boys the cohesion 
is found to hold the boys together regardless of the leader. 
Should the girls' leader disappear, the group will dissolve; 
while with the disappearance of the leader of the boys a 
new leader is found, and the spirit of the gang survives 
such interruptions to its life. 

The Gang's Hold on the Boy 

Leader 




From every boy to the leader, via every other boy. If the leader drops out 
the solidarity of the gang pushes another leader to the front. 

The Girls' Grouping 



The Leaders 

Interest 



O^ 




From every girl direct to the leader. The dotted lines indicate the weaker, 
reflected bond of interest of all the other girls ir each individual because of her 
devotion to the common ador£e. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 41 

For the Sunday-school classes and for the life of the 
department this all means that the leader or teacher finds 
among his boys a fairly well-defined social spirit into which 
he must fit and in which he will find his best opportunities. 
His class or his department as a whole is a gang, the spirit 
of which he must learn direct by becoming a member of 
it, sharing its life, enjoying its fellowship, and creating, 
for it and through it, its ideals. The teacher or leader of 
girls of these years will find, on the contrary, that she is 
called to make a group by the force of her own personality, 
nor need she be surprised to discover that the esprit de 
corps of the class or of a group of girls in the department 
is of her own making and depends on her for its very life. 
She is central as the male teacher is not. He must win 
his place in the gang; she must make a gang into which 
to inject her own personality and ideals. 

6. Variation within each. sex. Let us turn from these 
differences between the sexes to note certain variations in 
the developing sex life in individuals. Causes of variation 
in the time of the beginning of adolescence may be found 
in three quarters: first, in heredity; secondly, in the physi- 
cal background of childhood; and, thirdly, in the imme- 
diate environment of the youth. 

Differences due to heredity — that is, to family, to nation- 
ality or race, or to climatic conditions — are totally beyond 
human control; their interest lies only in the fact that one 
must reckon with them in directing the lives of the 
young. Social workers in the foreign quarters have come 
to recognize these national differences and have learned 
to throw protective measures about the children of some 
foreigners much earlier than would be necessary for our 
own American youths. 

The physical background of childhood is a determining 
factor in timing the developmental processes. A childhood 
that has been vigorous and healthful, that has been fur- 
nished with nutritious food, abundance of water and of 
fresh air, absence of undue nervous strain, and plenty of 



42 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

sleep as its daily lot has fortified itself against many of the 
misfortunes attendant upon changes at this period. Fur- 
thermore, such childhood is the best forerunner of normal 
development out of childhood's estate. Unfortified thus, 
the body, heavily loaded with the strain of building new 
tissue, developing new organs, and making new adjust- 
ments, finds its resources of nerve strength too severely 
taxed; and, instead of passing naturally through this expe- 
rience and rapidly getting the new life established, the 
physical organism yields a nervous, irritable, and capri- 
cious personality. 

When one finds such conditions existing among one's 
pupils one may suspect the cause as lying back in child- 
hood. At least that may be the cause. The corrective is 
to counteract such bad early living by encouraging nor- 
mal living, exercise, correct diet, and rest, and by getting 
the right bodily ideals established. One may find that for 
such persons the most religious service that can be ren- 
dered is in the nature of corrective physical living. For, 
strange as it may seem, the relation between irritability, 
nervousness, and caprice, on the one hand, and true, Christ- 
like living, on the other, is physical, and the method of 
self-control and of spiritual progress is in a large part 
through the physical substratum. 

If the relation between health and happiness is so inti- 
mate, what can one say of the foolish excesses permitted 
those who are in the process of making these physical 
changes? Throughout our land the high schools lay 
a heavy tax upon the vitality of youth, yet not too 
heavy if otherwise the life is wholesome. But in very 
many cases there is added to or permitted to be added to 
this tax the drain of music lessons, of dancing, of parties 
and socials, or of the highly stimulating "movies/' until 
nature rebels. If the crisis is to be passed successfully, if 
the individual is to be given a fair chance to mature into a 
sound, healthy person, if his natural enthusiasms are not 
to be allowed to undermine his vitality, he must be safe- 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 43 

guarded during just these years. The opportunities for 
vigorous outdoor living must be multiplied, the risks of 
overstimulation of the emotions and of the nerve fatigue 
must be reduced to a minimum, the diet must be whole- 
some, and rest abundant. Particularly must the physical 
processes of elimination function freely, Lest the poisons tax 
too severely the already overstrained organism. Least of 
all should youth be expected spontaneously to care for 
itself. It feels the thrill of a new life and of superabundant 
energy. The parent, by wise counsel and restraint, and the 
teacher, by class comradeship and counsel, must be will 
and brains for growing youth. 

For, after all, normality and health are the desirable 
objectives during these years. Early maturing has the dis- 
advantage of throwing the maturing body into risks before 
mind arid will have had time to fortify themselves; while 
a greatly delayed maturing of the body embarrasses its 
subject by leaving him childish when others of his years 
have passed on. These changes cannot be willed to suit 
one's prejudices, but there can be provided a wholesome life 
that will predispose the individual to normality both as to 
time of the inception of puberty and as to the development 
of the body during these trying years. 

7. Irradiations of sex. There is a growing conviction 
that changes of a physical nature have influences far beyond 
the usual belief. For instance, the high emotionalism 
ensuing upon adolescence is undoubtedly due directly to 
this cause. With this and coupled with the wider social 
horizon comes the romanticizing of youth. The world is 
made anew. Adolescence is a rebirth of the individual, and 
in this rebirth the prosaic life of the past takes on new and 
beautiful coloring. Not only is the opposite sex endowed 
with qualities never before discovered, but nature not infre- 
quently is seen through new eyes. There is a beauty in 
the world not seen before. The quickening of the senses 
and the expansion of intellectual powers likewise arise 
from the newly developed life. A meaningfulness is found 



44 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

such as was absent in the objective life of childhood, and 
self becomes introspective. Moral judgments are sharpened. 
Religion, already discovered, finds new depths and heights. 

The age of conversion, or, better, the times of religious 
awakening, come just in these years, making adolescence 
the fruitful period for the religious leader. And the com- 
mingling of the various ideals and emotions is so intricate 
that many a youth is at a loss to know just where beauty 
or truth or religion or love separate themselves from one 
another. 

Besides keeping the body strong and well, the great end 
to be sought by every lover of youth should be to keep the 
emotions ana the mind clean through a variety of whole- 
some objective interests. Athletics, well-organized and 
wholesome fun, activities of service, all come in for a 
share in the program. Right ideas and right ideals toward 
self, toward others, and toward God fortify against many 
temptations and point the way toward noble living. But 
these ideals, backed by good health and abundance of whole- 
some mental, social, and physical interests, are doubly 
potential. At this age the worst foes to clean living and to 
religion are bad mental imagery, a devitalized body, and an 
introspective or self-centered life. 

Questions 

1. Why is a thorough knowledge of sex necessary to the 
leader of youth? 

2. Why are stimulants, narcotics, or general unhealthy 
conditions especially disadvantageous just as adolescence is 
entered upon? 

3. What characteristic changes take place at the dawn 
of puberty? How does sex development differ with boys and 
girls? 

4. Why do girls have fewer gangs than boys? 

5. Is good health an objective toward which a Sunday- 
school teacher should guide his class? Give some good 
reasons for your answers. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX DEVELOPMENT 45 

6. How do irradiations of sex manifest themselves at 
this age? 

Observation 

Note the relations of boys and girls of intermediate age; 
also of senior age. Which group is shy and embarrassed in 
the presence of the opposite sex? In which group do the 
sexes mix best? Are groups or individuals of the opposite 
sex sought? 



CHAPTER IV 
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 

A teacher of pupils of the teen years complained that 
although he knew the characteristics of the adolescent boy 
he did not know the characteristics of any member of his 
class. They were all so different from each other that 
no generalization, he contended, fitted any of them. This 
is the truth that all are sooner or later to discover. One 
who possesses a knowledge of the life and peculiarities of 
these years is thereby better fitted to deal with youth than 
one who, unacquainted with these facts, goes blindly at the 
task. But ere long he will find that, in addition to his 
general knowledge, he will have to master a knowledge of 
the peculiarities of each boy or each girl. Generalizations 
as to characteristics fit the individual much as a suit of 
clothes made to the dimensions of the "average" boy of 
fourteen fits the particular fourteen-year-old in your home 
or in your neighbor's. It is too big in spots, too small in 
others, and altogether out of harmony with the figure that 
you are trying to clothe. It is well, therefore, to take time 
to note in what some of these individual differences consist 
and to anticipate, so far as possible, the experiences one 
must meet as he faces the six to ten pupils who will make 
up his class. 

1. Varieties in growth. The first marked difference 
among pupils is the variation in growth. Somewhere be- 
tween the eleventh and fifteenth years each normal boy 
goes through a period of rapid physical development. This 
well-known fact may be looked for in the life of every 
adolescent. Frequently it is overlooked that the precise age 
at which the boy or girl will "shoot up like a bean pole" 
varies much with different individuals. Here is a boy 

46 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 47 

who begins his rapid growth at eleven, pauses at twelve, 
then takes a new start and keeps on growing, attaining his 
mature height at sixteen. Another in the same class does 
not begin his phenomenal "sky-rocketing" until his thir- 
teenth year, then, by gigantic effort, overtakes his fellow 
member at fifteen, continuing his upward towering until 
his eighteenth or nineteenth year. All sorts of variations 
as to bodily growth are found in these years. The result 
is that a group of thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boys or 
girls standing in a row form a very irregular "sky-line." 

One consequence of the variations under consideration is 
to put the individual in an anomalous light before his 
elders. One is "grown up" by appearance, yet may be only 
a boy in age and in his own estimate of lumself. Another, 
.delayed in bodily development, is by his experience a man. 
Those who are older can quickly realize the status of the 
members of their classes so as not to be deceived by mere 
size alone; but it is another matter to help the individual 
to adjust himself to these trying years of bodily expan- 
sion. His companions see something "awfully funny" in his 
elongated frame, in his awkward hands and feet. He be- 
comes "Skinny" or "Bones" or "Spike" and, while attempt- 
ing to accept the verdict of the group good-naturedly, 
inwardly wonders why he is not like other boys of his 
years. 

The quick rounding out of the figures of the girls con- 
ceals some of these discrepancies, but they are no more 
alike in bodily growth than are their brothers. Here too 
we must watch against hasty judgment based upon size. 
The biggest girl in the class may not be the most mature 
nor the most womanly. She may be the dullest, the most 
childish, the least experienced. She may need more cau- 
tious handling, more sympathy, than her slowly growing 
neighbor who has experienced no sudden transition from 
childhood to adult proportions. 

2. Variations in maturity. Of deeper significance, 
however, than mere bodily growth is the amount of ma- 



48 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

turity, of sex development, encountered among pupils. One 
matures early, another late, a difference of as much as 
four to five years being noticed in the inception of the 
process. As a physiological fact alone this difference is 
significant. As one recalls the amount of curiosity aroused 
by the change from childhood to youth, the temptations to 
satisfy the curiosity in doubtful ways, and to seek informa- 
tion from questionable sources, it becomes apparent that 
it does matter tremendously whether maturity comes early, 
in the middle period, or late. 

But, aside from the mere physical fact of maturity, this 
process affects the whole range of mental life. Physical 
maturing is the basis of mental maturing, and we may 
expect the two # to go hand in hand. Is it not possible 
that one overlooks an important mental difference when, 
one ignores progress in the physical maturity of one's 
pupils? How can one escape the conviction that the little 
boy among those who have matured is out of place or, 
at any rate, must receive different treatment from the 
more advanced? Certainly, as these physical causes of 
difference among our pupils are discovered, one is less 
inclined to expect the same results from each, readier 
to be charitable toward those whose variations are not 
of their own choosing. Perhaps as one learns to know 
the inner life of one's pupils one will be able the better 
to fit his teaching and leadership to their individual needs, 
to discover the developing personality, and to think less in 
"mass" terms of the class. 

3. Variations in native capacity. No one can be long 
with growing youths without becoming conscious of native 
differences in capacity. Supposing all to be advanced 
enough to be considered normal in their mental attain- 
ments, still wide variations occur. Of the subnormal and 
mentally deficient it need only be said that they require 
special consideration and such grouping with others of 
their kind as to prevent their acting as a drag upon the 
class, on the one hand, and, on the other, to give them every 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 49 

possible attention and advantage. But normal pupils are 
bright, mediocre, or dull, and the teacher must take recog- 
nition of these differences. The brighter and more for- 
ward are apt to monopolize attention and time. They are 
attractive and respond so quickly to teaching as to flatter 
conceit. On the other hand, the dull are so slow as to tax 
most severely his patience. Yet the dull may be, after all, 
only slow methodical minds, who do not "flash" but who by 
slow degrees attain such perfection as may be desired. 
Regardless of the causes of dullness, unless they are remov- 
able through better nourishment or physical treatment, 
these persons deserve one's best skill, lest an injustice be 
done them. The difficulty of the situation arises and 
becomes acute as one tries to hold the attention of the 
brighter minds while waiting and encouraging the mental 
processes of those who are slow. To recognize these dif- 
ferences and to attempt intelligently to meet the needs of 
each are the beginnings of real success in teaching. 

4. The timid pupil. Nearly akin to what has just been 
discussed is the art of drawing out the timid pupil; for, 
as everyone has discovered, some pupils are timid. They 
may be bright or they may be dull, they may be the older 
members of the class, or they may be the younger. Their 
timidity may be constitutional or it may have been in- 
duced by too great repression at home or in school. What- 
ever the cause, there they are to be taught; and as good 
teaching demands expression from the pupil, these are 
often neglected for those more ready to answer questions 
or to take up the discussion and carry it forward. Here, 
again, is demanded the greatest skill, coupled with pro- 
found sympathy. The knowing teacher will discover ways 
of opening the closed lips, stimulating the mind to self- 
expression, and, by a look or a smile, by a word of encour- 
agement or a tactful question, will overcome self-conscious- 
ness and make easy the difficult process of social living and 
speaking. 

5. Discovering and utilizing capacity. The alert 



50 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

teacher will also discover latent talents among his pupils 
which exhibit inner differences of the mind. Aside from 
the lesson of Sunday the pupils will seek outlet for their 
energies in social, athletic, and other forms of activity and 
cooperation. Leaders will be in demand, though all cannot 
lead. Soon from among the number will be found "some 
who follow and some who command, though all be made of 
clay." This indicates differences in initiative in the group, 
and it may be discovered that those who are less glib in 
the recitation are the sturdier in executive ability, while 
the timid in the presence of others may show real initiative 
in carrying out the plans of the class. The midweek 
activities — the hikes, the games, the "club meetings," the 
socials, — become the opportunities for the teacher not alone 
to discover differences but to utilize the varying abilities 
displayed. Those who are suggestible may work under di- 
rection, while those who are original in their thinking 
processes may plan better than they can execute. Those 
w T ho can execute may be poor leaders and deficient in initia- 
tive but able to "put things across" with speed and 
accuracy. 

During these very years, when no boy or girl truly 
knows himself, when the new life forces are surging up, 
unused and untamed, unrecognized by their possessor least 
of all, it is the glorious opportunity of the Sunday-school 
leader to discover the youth to himself, to strengthen the 
weak spots in his make-up, to draw out the best within 
him, and to be in such close sympathy that the teacher 
becomes the youth's second self. All this is delightful but 
possible only when he studies these individual peculiarities, 
learns to appreciate them and to discover the means of 
setting the new personality right in its own eyes and in 
the eyes of the class. 

6. Differences due to home culture. Differences thus 
far observed have their sources largely, though not entirely, 
in the natural endowment of the individual. Other varia- 
tions demand attention — variations that arise from the 



INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 51 

environment in which the pupil's life is cast. The group 
differences that grow out of social or economic stratifica- 
tions will be discussed later, but now one should look at 
certain attitudes and opinions that already are found in 
pronounced forms in the minds of some. 

Here, for instance, is a class of six girls, all of about 
the same age, graded as carefully as at the high school. 
One comes from a home in which the religious atmosphere 
is very manifest yet very natural; others come from homes 
of indifferent religious interest; while the last is from a 
home totally unfriendly to the church and to religion. 
These differences manifest themselves at once in the class 
work. The attitude of the first pupil is sympathetic and 
full of understanding. Her mind is stored with religious 
phrases and Biblical imagery. The whole background of 
her experience predisposes her to faithful, intelligent work 
and to a ready understanding of the teacher's viewpoint. 
How different is the last pupil from the one just described! 
Her whole past contributes little, if anything, to her reli- 
gious outlook, certainly nothing positive and helpful. 

Now, such sharp contrasts are not likely to occur in the 
same class. But one must ever be on the lookout to see 
what progress the pupils have made in religious growth 
and appreciation. It is not a question of having at their 
tongue tips so much Biblical information, good as that 
may seem; it is, rather, to discover how far their home and 
school life, their play and social relations have predisposed 
them favorably and intelligently toward the work we are 
to do. Of course, the least likely are the very ones to 
demand sympathy and help, but that is not the question 
now. First of all, in justice to the class and to himself, 
the teacher must know his pupils — their inner attitudes, 
prejudices, and mental imagery. And here are found as 
great individual divergencies as at any one point in all 
one's seeking. No wonder there is blundering when it is 
insisted that the same instruction, measured out in the 
same fashion, with no recognition of these differences, is 



52 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

ample for the task. To assume knowledge that has never 
been acquired, emotions that have never been felt, sym- 
pathies that have not arisen, insight that has been impos- 
sible, and attitudes toward God and man that have never 
been cultivated is fatal to good teaching. 

What we need is to take stock of each pupil, to learn 
his capacities, discover his peculiarities, awaken his latent 
talents, arouse his emotions, create for him situations that 
shall call forth correct moral attitudes, environ him with 
right stimulations, open to him the channels of knowledge, 
and create within him noble desires. 

Too long have these youthful pupils been "just boys and 
girls." Now one must see that they are differing personali- 
ties, demanding the keenest understanding one possesses 
and insisting upon thoroughgoing companionship. Such un- 
derstanding and such companionship can come only as they 
are known as individuals. 

Questions 

1. Note differences in size and in appearance of maturity 
of four or five boys or girls of the same age. Is the largest 
the most mature? Does size indicate leadership? 

2. How would you treat the brightest pupil? Encourage 
him? Set him to work? Ignore him in order to help the 
duller ones? 

3. Is timidity a sign of dullness? of brightness? of self- 
consciousness? How may the timid pupil be helped? 

Obsekvatiox 

Observe a teacher with his class to see: (1) how he 
handles the timid and dull pupil; (2) whether the bright 
pupils monopolize his attention; (3) if each pupil finds 
himself a part of the group under instruction. 



CHAPTER V 
GROUP DIFFERENCES 

The old adage "Birds of a feather flock together" fur- 
nishes a fruitful text for the discussion of certain phases 
of the lives of the intermediate-senior pupils. It has 
seemed wise to point out some of the individual differences 
likely to be met in association with these young people. 
It is now time to note certain group differences that must 
be faced if you would endeavor to classify these same pupils. 

1. Grouping by ages. To begin with, it may be said 
that where the size of the school seems to forbid close 
grading there must be such easy and natural assembling 
of pupils as will not completely defeat the ends of good 
teaching. Schools still exist which try the unfortunate 
practice of gathering all boys between twelve and seven- 
teen into one class, while girls of the same ages form 
another. Obviously this range of development is alto- 
gether too great to promise much comity of interest. Even 
though division seems to reduce the class to small propor- 
tions, it is better to put all those from twelve to fourteen 
into one class, those from fifteen to seventeen into another, 
making four classes in the place of the two. 

If the teachers of these smaller groups will study the 
interests of each class, will attempt to select lessons fitted 
to the intellectual development of its members, and will 
devise midweek activities suited to their tastes, a growth 
in numbers should presently be found, more than com- 
pensating for the division. For it must ever be kept in 
mind that during just these years life is going forward 
with amazing rapidity, and the older group of boys is far 
beyond those of the younger age. It is not impossible that 
the large class made up of miscellaneous ages from twelve 

53 



54 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

to seventeen is stagnant in its growth for the very reason 
that the teacher is attempting to do what is obviously 
impossible — fit his choice of lesson material and his method 
of teaching to too wide a range of mental powers. 

A still further differentiation found most acceptable is 
to group two years together. Every such step comes closer 
to the ideal of a thoroughly graded school, which, after 
all, means only a school that is honestly trying to pro- 
vide each pupil with what is best fitted to his needs. But. 
in general, the self-evident fact remains that between 
these two extreme ages there are at least two separate 
groups quite distinct from each other. Nor need be 
repeated again the peculiar characteristics of each group; 
the contrast most obvious is the wider range of interests 
and the greater acquirement of self-direction in the older 
boys and girls. For everything that has been said upon 
this point concerning boys is equally true regarding girls. 

2. Sex grouping. A second outstanding group differ- 
ence is determined by growing sex-consciousness. Without 
repeating the details of sex differences arising during these 
years, manifesting themselves in many ways, let it be 
noted that here there is every reason for keeping boys 
and girls apart in their class work, and no valid reason 
for ever putting them together. It is not only to satisfy 
the natural inclination of the sexes to draw apart that such 
division is urged but in order that personal problems aris- 
ing from the new social experiences may be given full, 
sympathetic, and frank discussion. 

On the other hand, the commingling of the pupils in 
wholesome recreative and philanthropic activities is quite 
as important for their social evolution as is their separa- 
tion for class instruction. For, after all, as one writer 
has wisely observed, God has ordered that we live in fami- 
lies, and not in monasteries. But even here, in their recrea- 
tive life, we shall find the common interests of boys with 
other boys and of girls with other girls more prevalent 
than those which draw the groups together. 



GROUP DIFFERENCES 55 

3. The high-school group. Other groupings that we 
must observe arise from the nature of our social structure 
— perhaps we should say, rest in our economic fabric rather 
than in the pupils themselves. Attention has already been 
called to the two groups — those who go to school and those 
who labor, whose native interests are alike but whose 
acquired interests have diverged widely. It is necessary to 
look more closely at these two classes. 

The first distinction noted is the superior ability of the 
high-school boy or girl in handling the printed page. Con- 
stant practice in reading and daily familiarity with books 
make words, printed or written, easily understood symbols 
of thought. To read aloud in class causes no embarrass- 
ment; to study the lesson at home is no difficult task, 
albeit sometimes a reluctant one. To seek outside informa- 
tion from encyclopaedia or reference books is not impossible, 
either because of the labor involved in reading or because of 
ignorance of how to use such helps. 

Furthermore, the high-school student is accustomed to the 
routine of class work, is every day called upon to recite and 
to express his opinion, and has by this means gained confi- 
dence. Likewise, this practice has given him certain 
facility of utterance not possessed by his working comrade. 
All these things put those who are pursuing their educa- 
tional tasks at an advantage. Is it not likely that school, 
through its teaching of history and of literature, has given 
these a wider outlook and increased their stock of knowl- 
edge, so that references to passing events, to familiar quota- 
tions, to well-known historical personages, become at once 
understood and appreciated? In other words, the technique 
of study and of recitation, together with the results of such 
practice, lie ready to be utilized by the Sunday-school 
teacher. 

It must be still further recalled that these students come 
in large part from homes of sufficient refinement to value 
culture and to plan for the educational welfare of their 
children. No doubt many others would do the same did 



56 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

economic necessity not compel otherwise. The fact is, 
however, that high-school students are a picked lot who 
continue their studies because their parents value school- 
ing. This means that these boys and girls have the advan- 
tage over the working group in the environment of their 
homes. And as only a part of the student life is found 
in our Sunday schools, we may presume that this portion 
comes from homes above the average in religious culture. 

It is safe to conclude, then, that the high-school group 
is made up of those who have the technique of education, 
know how to study and how to recite, and have the further 
advantage in the home of a constant environment of cul- 
tured and probably religiously inclined parents. If the 
Sunday school is to become a real school, as is so often 
repeated, then these will find themselves readily adap- 
table to its ways, while the teachers of these students will 
find their own work greatly lightened by the preparation 
of their students. 

4. The employed group. The advantages, however, are 
not all on the side of the students. Business has its dis- 
ciplines too, and religion is something more than books. 
First comes the sense of reality which is too frequently 
absent from high-school work. The boy or girl who has 
stepped out to earn a living is no longer haunted with the 
thought that he or she is getting ready to live; life is 
being lived every day, and the things that are being done 
and are to be learned are vital things — vital to one's self- 
support and to one's advancement. Moreover, life is being 
lived in conjunction with other human beings, in conse- 
quence of which moral and religious problems possess a 
power lacking to those whose lives are more or less 
secluded. 

Again, life by these youths is being passed in groups, 
most of whose members are adults, with whose viewpoints 
they are brought daily into contact, whose standards of 
moral and personal living are ever vividly before them. 
No one who has dealt with the street urchin or with those 



GROUP DIFFERENCES 57 

whose lives have been cast where wit is necessary to suc- 
cess need be told that these boys and girls are old for their 
years, able to "shift for themselves," before the age of one 
whose life has been determined for him. What they lack in 
breadth as compared with their student friends they fre- 
quently compensate for in quickness of perception and in 
penetration beyond the artificial and the unreal. 

5. Adjusting the department to these groups. Keep- 
ing in mind that all shades of differences exist in the mem- 
bers of each group, what is the worker with intermediates 
or seniors to do? How far shall he take recognition of 
these group differences, wrought out of our economic life? 

Inasmuch as each group has its own interests and its 
own kind of life, it would seem but w T ise to separate the 
groups for teaching as much as possible. One advantage 
of such separation is better selection of lesson material to 
fit the needs of the group. Such selection comes in two 
directions: first, in the choice of textbooks that are verbally 
adapted to the group it has been found that the working 
boy requires a more restricted vocabulary and a narrower 
range of historical and literary allusions; secondly, in the 
topics and subjects for study one needs to consider the 
moral and religious atmosphere of the working group and 
to seek such material as shall compel interest and stimu- 
late real thinking. Lessons prepared for high-school stu- 
dents are not wisely adapted to the needs of those whose 
days are spent in acquiring not knowledge but primarily 
wealth. Just as truly as the high schools of our land have 
discovered that the curriculum must be fitted to the need 
of groups among their student bodies, so in these depart- 
ments such lesson material must be found as shall 
meet the requirements, intellectual and religious, of the 
students. 

A second advantage in such segregation of these groups 
is found in the common interests of those in the same 
group and the unlike interests of industrial and school 
pupils. Clothing, speech, free time for recreation, and types 



58 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

of "good times" are likely to vary to an extent that would 
defeat attempts to coalesce the groups. 

The objection most often raised to such segregation pro- 
gram is that it tends to increase still further the social 
cleavage of our land. It is essentially undemocratic. The 
better plan, say such critics, is to throw those of diverse 
social or economic strata together, thus cementing the 
social body more firmly. Unfortunately, it is necessary here 
to meet a condition, as one of our Presidents said of states- 
manship, rather than a theory. What is endeavored in 
these groupings is to give each group a fair and an equal 
chance. The Sunday school cannot do the work of the 
public school, nor is it responsible for the intellectual short- 
comings of some nor for the social precocity of others. 
Furthermore, one has still to remember that the depart- 
ment as a whole is to function as well as are the classes; 
and in its functioning, in its worship, its recreation, its 
service for others, is found a common footing of reverence, 
play, and service, which shall bind all elements into one 
Christian whole. Here divergent interests and varying 
capabilities will be brought together, each contributing to 
the welfare of all. 

Perhaps hitherto too much attention has been paid to the 
high-school students in the Sunday school, providing les- 
sons readily assimilable by them, thus neglecting the very 
elements for which the foregoing critics most contend. Is 
it not possible that among other causes of the neglect of 
Sunday school by working boys and girls one is to be found 
in the school's negligence to meet their needs, to recog- 
nize their own problems, and to discover their genuine 
interests? It is essential, therefore, to study each group 
as a group, perceive its interests, know its environment, 
analyze for it its life, and be able to minister to its needs. 

6. The rural boy and girl. A still further group de- 
manding attention is made up of the youths who remain 
on the farm. Many farmers' sons and daughters during 
these years leave the homes to make up the groups already 



GROUP DIFFERENCES 59 

considered. Some come to the city to study, taking advan- 
tage of the better educational facilities there found. Others 
seek employment in the industrial centers, in factories, 
stores, or offices. But the larger number are still found on 
the farms. These vary in their educational progress all 
the way from the grades up to the students in the county 
high schools or in the near-by city schools or academies. 

Once again let it be noted that these boys and girls have 
the same natural interests as their brothers and sisters 
in the cities. Differences arise entirely from their environ- 
ment. On the one hand, as a whole they are less advanced 
in technical education, due to the poverty of educational 
advantages in the rural sections. Their social horizon is 
also more restricted. The opportunities for social fellow- 
ship, for organized play and recreation, are much less 
frequent. Further, the ever-repeated revival has put a pre- 
mium upon certain emotional types of religion which dis- 
count the value of religious education, and these boys and 
girls are already becoming susceptible to such attitudes. 
The Sunday school has not taken such deep hold in rural 
as in urban life. 

On the other hand, it should be said that rural religion 
is vital even where its conservatism discourages scholar- 
ship; and the family is still central in the religious life of 
the community. The Bible is revered, and the youth is 
taught respect for things religious. Moreover, social de- 
mands are less insistent and frequent, giving the Sunday 
school a peculiar social opportunity. Nor should be over- 
looked the initiative that farm life demands. Early these 
youths are taught self-reliance. They must meet Nature 
and learn to deal with her in a practical way if they woula 
"get on." All these experiences develop that individuality 
that is so refreshing in the lives of country boys and girls. 

These considerations indicate that the teachers of inter- 
mediates and seniors in the rural Sunday schools must 
meet problems quite peculiar to themselves. Lesson mate- 
rial must be chosen in view of the educational restrictions 



60 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

of the pupils. Lessons stressing the social rather than 
the emotional and personal side of religious life are to be 
desired. In a group in which social organization and living 
have been little practiced leadership must be sought most 
carefully and most diligently developed. Plans for recrea- 
tion must be attempted again and again before group play 
and group activity show signs of true enjoyment. The 
brain must be cudgeled to discover forms of social service, 
that religion may become truly socialized. And, not least, 
the religious implication of much that is considered com- 
mon if not useless must be revealed. 

It is true that all this needs doing for the city boys and 
girls too. There is no denying that. But in the country 
far more than in the city social religion and expertness in 
social cooperation are sadly lacking. Before these things 
can be fully accomplished there is need to go at the task 
of supplying rural Sunday schools with housing adequate 
• to such a program and of providing lesson material that 
shall interpret country life to its pupils as fully and as well 
as does much of the present literature interpret city life to 
the urban boy and girl. Fortunately, with the rural tele- 
phones, better roads, the automobile, better schools, wider 
distribution of books and periodicals, and the general rise 
of intellectual and social living, the differences between 
these youths of the country and those of the city are disap- 
pearing; but as yet this element in our Sunday schools is 
still a group to itself, demanding special attention and 
consideration. 

Questions 

1. What reasons can you think of for keeping the sexes 
apart in the class work? Do the same reasons apply to the 
social and recreational life of the department? 

2. Name some advantages the high-school group possesses 
for study and recitation. What advantages in the larger 
experiences of life have those in the working group? 



GROUP DIFFERENCES 61 

3. What demands does the rural boy or girl lay upon the 
teacher? 

Observation 

If possible, visit two classes — one made up of high-school 
students, and the other of factory or business youth — noting 
their relative interest, lesson attention, ability to handle 
the printed page, and to discuss the lesson. 



CHAPTER VI 

GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 

"So near is grandeur to our dust, 
So near is God to man, 
"When duty whispers low Thou must!' 
The youth replies, T can!'" 

Two paradoxes confront workers with youth: First, this 
is the time of highest moral idealism, of religious conver- 
sions, and of gathering into church membership; secondly, 
it is the time of all others when criminal careers are en- 
tered upon. Such astounding divergencies in character- 
building, coming as they do at precisely the same time, give 
one reason to pause and reflect. How is it possible that out 
of the same fountain of youth come waters bitter and 
sweet? 

1. The crystallization of character toward the good. 
To see more clearly the crystallization of character going 
on during these years let us look at some data gathered 
by various investigators. Coe 1 has collected and examined 
some seventeen hundred experiences of Christian men and 
women, predominantly men, who have passed the age of 
adolescence. These individuals are distributed as follows: 
graduates from Drew Theological Seminary, 776; Young 
Men's Christian Association officers, 526; conversion cases 
examined by Professor Starbuck, 51; spontaneous cases, 
same author, 75; members of the Rock River Conference, 
272; Coe's own cases, 84; total, 1,784. Collecting all the 
ages of conversion or of religious awakening and striking 
an average, we have sixteen and four-tenths years as the 
age at which these persons were awakened to a new life 
which definitely decided their future moral and religious 
careers. 



1 Spiritual Life, Chapter I. 

62 



GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 63 

"Billy" Sunday in his campaigns has repeatedly called 
for show of hands as to the age of conversion, this call 
resulting invariably in discovering that the overwhelming 
proportion of those in his vast audiences began under 
twenty to mold their lives after their conception of the 
Christian pattern. 

Nor must we think that religious awakening is always 
identified with the revival. 

Not infrequently it is spontaneous and altogether inde- 
pendent of revival influences or other pressure from outside. 
One young lady relates that at the age of fourteen, while 
she was walking in a neighbor's garden, suddenly the 
thought came to her that she had passed from death unto 
life. There were no especial emotional manifestations, 
yet this event she has always looked upon, as a decisive 
one. In general, at this age the child's ordinary religious 
customs and beliefs assume some new aspects. They be- 
come matters of greater moment, more vitally interesting, 
more full of feeling. The ordinary services of the church 
or the ordinary acts of devotion may become fraught with 
the most weighty import. 1 

These cases clearly indicate that, so far as they are con- 
cerned, a definite and conscious crystallization of forces 
making for good character was going on in these years. 
Have we as clear indication of a parallel precipitation of 
the evil forces that go toward the making of an antisocial 
and evil character? 

2. The crystallization of character to war d the evil. 
Dr. Healy, who has made a close study of more than a 
thousand delinquents in order to understand the factors 
that entered into their delinquent careers, has found that 
in large part these offenders began their unfortunate prac- 
tices in their youth. 2 They may not have become actual 
delinquents in the technical sense until after their ma- 
jority; but as Dr. Healy has set about attempting to unravel 
the causes of their moral obliquities he has had to go back 



1 Coe, Spiritual Life, pages 49, 50. 

2 The Individual Delinquent. 



64 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

and retrace their youthful careers, finding therein, more fre- 
quently than not, the seeds of later derelictions. After de- 
ducting all* those whose delinquencies root primarily in 
absolute mental subnormality we find those whose nor- 
mality should have promised usually good conduct tak- 
ing their first downward step in the very years under 
consideration. 

All that is attempted by the foregoing illustrations 
either of early and youthful bent toward religion and 
higher moral attainment or toward immorality and delin- 
quency is to show that these are pregnant years for the 
moral and religious future of the race. If it is argued that 
in either direction extreme cases have been taken — in the 
one those which have eventuated in specially religious per- 
sonalities, in the other those which have passed con- 
siderably from the paths of rectitude, if not entirely beyond 
the pale of the law, — it may be replied that the choice 
makes no difference with the point involved. Those are 
decisive years, whether the decisions are more or less 
dramatic. Even those who have slipped quietly out of 
childhood into maturity with no apparent stress or strain 
in the moral and religious development look back upon 
these years as the period when characters were in incuba- 
tion, when they and their youthful companions began to 
make choices that in the intervening time have determined 
the varying careers that have ensued. They were years when 
habits were being fixed, moral viewpoints established, com- 
panionships determined, ideals discovered. Those whose 
memories are good are in large numbers able to cite certain 
turning points, milestones in their development when the 
forming of a friendship, the reading of a book, the meet- 
ing of a temptation successfully or unsuccessfully, the 
change of a residence and the reaction to a new environ- 
ment, or the seeming accidental situation awakened new 
moral and religious life or, on the contrary, became the 
means of deadening one's finer sensibilities or the indul- 
gence of desire unwholesome to the future moral life. 



GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 65 

3. How character is formed: habit. That these are 
formative years, morally and religiously, that during this 
time crises may arise — indeed, are likely to arise — leading 
to the making or the misshaping of character, all will likely 
agree. The leader of youth may perceive that this is the 
time of opportunity, that these days are in a special sense 
fraught with spiritual significance and destiny. But is it 
clear how he may work with God, with nature, and with 
the personality of the youth himself to the largest and 
best ends? What is the relation between the orderly pro- 
cesses of habit formation and the explosive emotional 
readjustment of life's ideals and life's conduct? Is God as 
truly in the former process as in the latter, and, if so, 
where? And has conversion a physical, emotional, and tem- 
peramental background, or is it "spiritual," transcendent, 
and unrelated to the rest of the natural life of youth? 
These are not idle questions, but must be answered in fact 
if not in words in the kind of efforts put forth on behalf 
of the spiritual welfare of these early-adolescent boys and 
girls. 

First of all one must look squarely at the facts of moral 
life. In the chaos that follows upon the advent into ado- 
lescence from childhood one of the first essentials is to get 
right habits fixed. These good habits are the bulwark 
against the many temptations that assail in later days. 
Without stopping at this time to, ask how these good habits 
are to be formed let us see what habits are especially 
desirable. 

Bodily habits come first. The youth needs to possess 
himself of such habits of bodily cleanliness, of proper food 
mastication, of sleep, and of exercise, that the physical 
organism can withstand the strains, physical and moral, 
put upon it. Bad physical condition is a large contributing 
cause to delinquency. Carious teeth send poison through 
the body; defective eyesight causes nervousness through 
eye strain; poor elimination causes poisons producing de- 
pression and melancholy; underexercise promises devital- 



66 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

ization and listlessness; narcotics and stimulants share in 
throwing the physical being out of joint. 1 

Good mental habits are as vital as are good bodily habits. 
"Lack of healthy mental interests''- and ''bad mental im- 
agery" 3 are two large contributing factors in delinquency, 
as Healy finds. The first means that the mind having no 
healthy interests to focus itself upon is allowed to catch at 
the first excitement or what promises excitement, regardless 
of results. For the mind of youth is ever alert to get some- 
thing out of life. If left unnourished by healthy interests, 
it will seize upon whatever offers itself. "Bad mental 
imagery" consists in the tendency of the mind to hold 
such pictures before it as lead to thieving, violence, and 
other forms of criminality or of antisocial conduct. 

Habits of honesty in property and in speech are likewise 
essential elements in social living second to none. Failure 
to acquire those habits militates more than all else against 
adjusting oneself to the business and social environment 
in which this age finds itself. Property rights especially 
are highly respected in our moral thinking, and truth- 
fulness is constantly increasing as a requirement in our 
social intercourse. 

Added to the foregoing are habits of efficiency and self- 
control. In our present life the determination to '"get 
things done," to achieve, makes attention, application, and 
quick adaptability to new situations imperative. Self-con- 
trol is involved in any real success. 

For the time one must give up those hair-breadth dis- 
tinctions between morals and religion. For the world of 
boys and girls the moral becomes religious, and the reli- 
gious must become always moral. To help create good 
moral and bodily habits in youth is not "merely moral" 
nor "merely physical"; it is true progress in spiritual 
things. What is sought is a wholesome body as a physical 



1 Healy, The Individual Delinquent, Chapters III, IV, V, Part II. 
"-Ibid., Chapter VII. 
3 Ibid., Chapter IX. 



GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 67 

basis for intellectual, moral, and religious living, a mind 
kept clean and active through healthy mental interests, 
sincerity in word and deed, and efficiency and self-control. 

Such habits do not come in a single day; they are built up 
slowly through the years of childhood, but they become per- 
sonal in a new way in the days of youth. Before, one has 
been directed; now, one must choose for himself. Nor need 
we forget that these habits are the product of a compli- 
cated set of factors. The home life sets its own moral 
living before the child, and he soon accepts its standards 
and forms his habits under its tutelage. 1 The community 
has its standards also, and these are more or less insistent 
upon moral living. But youth must test those standards of 
childhood for himself, adopt some, reject others, and 
habituate himself to what finally become truly his. Need 
it be said that into the final process enter some of the 
ideals held before him — ideals that have never been attained 
but are ever striven for? Or, rejecting these, he sinks to 
the level more easily attained, with greater or less re- 
luctance. 

4. Habits and spiritual living. All this is very com- 
monplace, very well known. Why, then, repeat? Only 
because it is so often forgotten that contributing to right 
habits is just so far contributing to spiritual develop- 
ment. Let us say it reverently: It is getting God into 
the lives of these boys and girls. For note that the kind 
of God we want them to know is a God of order, of clean- 
liness and nobility, of sincerity and of self-control. He 
best knows that kind of God who participates in that kind 
of life. Whatever the Sunday school does to cultivate right 
relations between the young, to inspire clean thinking and 
wholesome acting, to set personal and social ideals before 
these young people which shall inspire to higher endeavor 
is part of its program of training in religion. Habits come 
through repeated actions. Actions are repeated which give 
satisfactions. Now, it is the province of the Sunday school 

l I&i'd., Chapter VI. 



68 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

to make right actions, right fun, right social living, right 
athletics, so satisfying that they shall become habitual. 
This is not something added to the Sunday-school pro- 
gram to catch boys and girls and hold them in the school; 
it is part of the plan to work with God in his great 
enterprise of making Christian men and women. 

This means obviously that the Sunday school and its 
leaders will be most zealous supporters of clubs, recrea- 
tional programs, athletic contests, and of all other means 
of wholesome interests and earnest living. The spiritual 
development of youth is wrought out in attention to the 
duties and pleasures of home, of school, of the '"gang," 
the club, or the clique, in the choice of amusements and 
reading. Here he is getting his bent. 

5. Character formation through awakening. But 
this unconscious crystallization of character is not the 
whole story. Surely the records of conversions, awakenings, 
storm-and-stress experiences, the quickenings of spiritual, 
intellectual, and moral life, are too abundant to leave one 
in doubt. Unfortunately these more dramatic climaxes of 
character building have demanded undue attention. They 
have, because of their very unusualness, assumed propor- 
tions altogether too* great. Not that they have not been 
pivotal in the individual, but they have been standardized 
as the type to which all must come. And, more, they have 
appeared so mysteriously that they have been chosen as 
the clear indications of the presence of the divine. Now, 
what are the facts? 

First, it should be noted that such awakenings are not 
confined to the spiritual life, in the narrower sense, nor to 
the Christian faith, nor to those branches of the Christian 
Church which demand the conversion experience. They 
are characteristic of certain types of adolescent and 
later growth. They cut laterally through all religions 
among certain individuals during adolescent and later years. 
They are, however, more common among those commu- 
nions which specialize in these experiences and, therefore. 



GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 69 

may become products of special propaganda. They are 
found more often among persons of certain temperament 
and so should be classed with other phenomena of mental 
life. And, lastly, it should be noted that they are by no 
means universal even among those in the denominations in 
which such experiences are capitalized. Many Methodists 
cannot testify to such experiences, although their lives wit- 
ness to the fact that they attain true Christian living. 1 

Only one whose mind is warped by theological prejudice 
can read the accumulated evidence and fail to see that 
conversion conforms to psychological laws and, conse- 
quently, is no more and no less miraculous than the 
crystallization of character through slower and less dra- 
matic channels. Further, as has been discovered, conver- 
sion experience is not unrelated to the will nor to the 
normal activities of the mind. 

The conclusion is obvious, then, that sudden conversion is 
the normal experience of some adolescent individuals, that 
its mechanism is according to well-known laws of the mind; 
that it is altogether absent among others of the same 
age who pass on to clearly accepted Christian living, and 
that its presence or absence is more dependent on the 
temperament and spiritual surroundings of the individual 
than on his personal deserts. 

That God is found in these experiences is not for a 
moment to be questioned, nor that "spiritual graces" are 
bestowed through them. That they are pivotal points in 
the spiritual lives of many cannot be refuted, nor is there 
a desire to minimize in the least their profound trans- 
forming power. But God is not to be found because here 
is a departure from the uniform laws of the Deity; rather 
he is discovered, as in the less dramatic building of char- 
acter, in the spiritual product that ensues. In either 
case it is the power of moral and spiritual ideas' and ideals 
to transform life and to make it conform to the standards 



x See Spiritual Life, Coe, Chapters I, III; also The Psychology of Religion, 
Starbuck, Chapters IV, VII, VIII, XXIV. 



70 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

of Christ, to bring the individual "into the measure of the 
stature of the fullness of Christ," that is to determine 
whether God is or is not present. 

6. Life decisions. One thing, however, must be kept 
clearly in mind: this is the time of life decisions. Now, 
the youth must be led to make his own, personal, positive, 
and conscious choice of Jesus Christ as his Friend and 
Saviour. Whether this decision is brought about dra- 
matically, with great emotional convulsions, or more delib- 
erately but with an undercurrent of genuine feeling, the 
decision must be made. For now these boys and girls 
have reached the age when their natures call them to 
shape their own lives, to seek ideals, to identify them- 
selves consciously with the persons and institutions that 
embody these ideals. The tremendous dynamic in their 
moral and spiritual progress is to be found in devotion 
to Christ. To him they must be brought to yield volun- 
tarily their finest and noblest devotion. Naturally they 
will want to identify themselves with his church as a 
means of bringing about his purpose in themselves and in 
the social life of this world. 

These are years of vital importance to the moral and 
spiritual uplift of these pupils. The spiritual leader of youth 
must help them find interests tremendously compelling 
while they are wholesome and character-forming, establish- 
ing thereby good habits of bodily care, or mental activity, 
and of social enthusiasms. In all this God is in the pro- 
cess. He must also help youth find Jesus Christ and make 
him the center of their noblest aspirations and the con- 
fidant in all their plans. Whether this discovery of the 
Christ is dramatic, whether the eyes of youth be suddenly 
opened to see Jesus, or whether he is a growing discovery 
makes no difference; but it does make a tremendous differ- 
ence whether or not he is discovered, and whether the life 
of the boys or girls is made to yield to his leadership. Fur- 
ther, the discovery to become real and potential must be 
consciously made and publicly revealed by allying oneself 



GOD IN THE LIFE OF YOUTH 71 

with those persons and institutions that stand for his 
cause. In all this, in the growing consciousness of youth, 
in his social awakening as well as in his moral and spirit- 
ual development, God is in the process, revealing himself 
in the life which is being transformed into the likeness of 
the Master Jesus Christ. 

Questions 

1. In thinking of your own experience note the age at 
which each religious awakening occurred. How far do 
these experiences confirm what is said in the early para- 
graphs? 

2. If you live in a county seat, you may be able to learn 
the ages at which various criminals were sentenced. How 
far do these findings indicate that evil character is crystal- 
lizing during adolescence? 

3. Name some desirable habits that should be formed 
during these years. 

4. How do religious awakenings tend to crystallize char- 
acter? Can God be in a process that is natural? 

5. Why should life decisions to follow Christ be made 
during intermediate-senior years? 



CHAPTER VII 

YOUTH AND THE CHURCH 

So closely is Christianity identified with the organized 
church that attention must definitely be given to the 
problem of the relation of youth to its membership, its 
instruction, its institutions, and its life. How does the 
church appeal to youth? What natural interests seek 
satisfaction throughout its ministries? How should the 
church go about the task of answering the religious and 
social needs of adolescence? 

1. The child and the church. In childhood the church 
is accepted as a matter of fact. The attitude of the child 
reflects the attitude of the home. If the home is sym- 
pathetic toward the church, and the child is reared in the 
same spirit, the church soon becomes an object of interest. 
On the other hand, if the family is indifferent or hostile, 
the church may stand outside the immediate interests of 
the child. In either case the relation is largely reflected. 
This does not mean that the relation then existing is indif- 
ferent as regards later religious development. Quite the 
contrary, the attitude in childhood of sympathetic interest 
or of indifference may in later years color all the relations 
of the individual. But there is nothing as yet of a highly 
personal kind. 

2. Social impulses and church membership. With 
the dawning of adolescence there awakens the social im- 
pulse. What has been an accepted relation becomes charged 
with personal significance. The church comes to typify 
certain religious ideas. The invitation to fellowship with 
the members of the church becomes a personal invitation. 
Not infrequently the contagion of the group adds to the 
weight of the more intimate desire to identify oneself with 

72 



YOUTH AND THE CHURCH 73 

those who make up its membership. Others join the 
church, and as they belong to our group, we too are con- 
fronted with the question "Why not I?" The awakening 
of the social impulse means that one has arrived at the 
stage at which uniting his individual self with others in 
a common endeavor is satisfying. One wants to belong to 
this and to that largely because the "belonging" yields 
happiness. There is a certain sense of personal expansion 
in this identification with the larger group. Now, the 
church, representing to us religious thought and emotion, 
is the larger group to which attachment is made for the 
sake of enlarging one's religious personality. Not that 
the situation is analyzed; we only know at this age that 
we "want to belong. " Perhaps we should be at a loss to 
give any valid reasons for our joining. Likely a phrasing 
of the matter, if one were pressed, would be of the con- 
ventional sort that has been learned from those older. 
But the awakening social impulse has swept many into 
the current of the larger religious group, and this thrill of 
social contact is what they are content with, at least 
for a time. 

It goes without saying that at this age the "church of our 
choice" is the only church of which one has any intimate 
knowledge. We are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, or 
Catholics because in one of the above institutions we have 
found the best-known social-religious group. 

3. Emotions and church, membership. Somewhat 
above the level of social contagion of the simpler sort is 
found the tide of religious emotionalism that sweeps many 
into the life of the church. In this case the new reli- 
gious life, the awakening, or conversion has given religious 
enthusiasm a new meaning. One is in love with God and 
with his people; and as naturally as one turns to one's 
family for understanding and sympathy in time of trouble 
or of joy so one turns to the family life of the church to 
secure the sympathetic understanding of what had just 
happened within and expresses within its family life the 



74 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

new hopes and ideals. This gathering with our fellows in 
religious enlargement is quite as uncritical as was its 
predecessor. It is likely to come at a little later period 
of life, say from thirteen to eighteen, but individual differ- 
ences are so great that no dates can be fixed. 

Those who enter into church fellowship in their earlier 
years, say from ten to eighteen, are most apt to be carried 
in on this tide of uncritical social feeling. If church mem- 
bership is delayed, the more critical faculties exercise them- 
selves, and one may ask himself concerning the mode of 
entering, discover differences in the form of admission that 
loom large on the moral horizon, question the form of 
church life and administration, and stumble at credal 
requirements. Here the problems confronting the youth 
may be so insoluble that membership is postponed, perhaps 
indefinitely. 

4. Religious fellowship. It is seen then that the 
church represents to youth a religious-social fellowship en- 
tered into because of the rise of the general social demand 
for fellowship; or because of the more intensely emotional 
upheaval in the inner life calling for like religious asso- 
ciations; or, at a later period, because critically this insti- 
tution is believed best fitted to meet our religious needs, 
intellectual as well as social. 

But this word "fellowship" must not be defined too nar- 
rowly. In the commingling of two in social intercourse 
there is the combining of two minds, the joint product 
being discussion. There is also the warmth we call fellow- 
ship if, as is supposed, we have in this intercourse common 
interests. This warmth is something more than cold dis- 
cussion. The quality of the intellectual flow is different by 
reason of this "something more." When one speaks of 
Christian fellowship one means likewise something more 
than mere assembling together. True, the fellowship 
reaches out to embrace all participants in one common 
feeling that is enhanced by group contagion; it also reaches 
out to the object of its fellowship and embraces fellowship 



YOUTH AND THE CHURCH 75 

with God. This reaching out, this enhancing quality that 
includes in its feelings not man alone but God himself, is 
what is sought by many who enter the church to nourish 
their religious life. When the church ministers in the 
deeper way to the adolescent he finds in it not only comity 
of interests but that "something more" which we term fel- 
lowship with God. The mystical element, sometimes incor- 
porating the aesthetic, sometimes the intellectual, is part of 
the satisfyingness found in the life of the church. 

5. Church activities and youth. But we must go one 
step further in our analysis. Youth is eager for action. It 
is instinctive to put its new life into expression. The 
church, then, if it would not murder the new life, if it 
"would not quench the Spirit," is bound to furnish abun- 
dance of activity, to give youth real things, worth-while 
things, to do. Not only in the narrow world of religion 
itself — prayer, praise, and testimony — but in the wider 
range of social and philanthropic activities must an ade- 
quate outlet for these energies be found. Great at this 
period of life as is the emotional appeal, the appeal of the 
senses and of muscular exertion is even greater. However, 
before going further with this thought, let us retrace our 
steps a little. 

All that has been said implies that the child should 
emerge naturally into the fellowship of the church, finding 
therein the environment that he needs for his social and 
religious nature. Large as is the number who proceed in 
this fashion, the still larger number never let their re- 
ligious nature function in this manner. The Sunday school 
gathers them in, instruction and training of a sort are 
given; then, at just the time when the larger life should 
be sought in the church, these boys and girls leave Sunday 
school altogether. If one would picture the membership 
of the Sunday school, one would find it not unlike a dumb- 
bell- — large at the extremes, that is, the Beginners,' Primary, 
and Junior Departments at one end, and the young people 
and adults at the other. Between these two runs a thin 



76 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

handle. It is evident to the most casual observer that the 
intermediate and senior hoys and girls are not held by the 
Sunday school. This is just the age when the church, by 
all the laws of the mental and social life, should make 
the greatest appeal to the young. Why, then, does the 
church not hold them? Is it not possible that those respon- 
sible have looked upon these years as a time of preparation, 
an in-between stage, instead of studying how to meet the 
needs of the teen-age group? Shall we not, perhaps, have 
to recast our program of instruction in the school, our 
scheme of recreation and of social expression, and even our 
plan of organization and of worship so as to incorporate 
these pupils more completely in the life of the church? 
Finding, as we do, that by nature boys and girls are ready 
to go forward in their religious development, what can 
the church do to help them? Let no standards be set up and 
then attempts made to bend the young to them, but, 
rather, let us see what the boys and girls need and, at this 
trying period of their lives, make it our duty to fit the 
ministries of the church to them. 

6. How to train for church, membership. First, the 
church, through its Sunday school, must train the new 
generation for church membership. The uniform lessons 
of the past have practically neglected this important service. 
The growing intellectual life, the developing social con- 
sciousness, and the need for definite personal decision have 
been ignored, while emphasis has been placed on studies of 
miscellaneous series of Bible lessons. "Decision Day" has 
been depended on to do that which requires years of care- 
ful instruction in a well-organized program of study. The 
intellectual background and the developing social aware- 
ness have been neglected, while great strain has been put 
upon the pupil's emotional nature. Every part of a well- 
developed curriculum should point to a life that is to be 
self-directed and, by its own choice, made loyal to Jesus 
Christ and his church. Where pastors' classes have been 
attempted, the effort frequently has been to do in a few 



YOUTH AND THE CHURCH 77 

weeks or months what can be done only by making this 
class a part of a larger process of preparation for church 
membership. 

Concretely, on the basis of earlier teaching of love and 
service to God, of knowledge of his ways among the men of 
the Old and New Testaments, the International Graded 
Lessons build up the pupil's appreciation of what good 
character, Christlike character is. Especially is this 
brought out in the intermediate-senior courses, such as the 
study of the life of Christ. This is followed by lessons 
dealing with Christian living, having as their object to 
ground the pupils in the essential ideals and doctrines of 
the Christian faith. Thereafter courses dealing with the 
various phases of Christian service and with more exact 
and scholarly discussions of Biblical history and literature 
are means of enlarging the pupil's knowledge and efficiency 
as a faithful servant of Jesus Christ. Such a series of 
studies is intended, as one may readily see, to lead the 
pupil into full and active membership in the church and to 
prepare him for efficient service therein. This is a sig- 
nificant part of the task of these departments. 

The second essential is that the church organize its whole 
educational program into something like unity. Pupils are 
confused as they become members of the Sunday school, 
of the Junior Epworth League, of the Epworth League, and 
of other societies and clubs, in attempting to understand 
their relation to each and to the church as a whole. Each 
group stands by itself, making its own appeal to some 
interest but unrelated more often than not to the other 
enterprises. To correct this evil the whole machinery of 
the church, so far as it has to do with the growing child or 
youth, needs correlating. 

Writing upon this matter, Miss Maus says: 

I have tested groups of young people in every section of 
the United States and have yet to find a single boy or girl 
in the adolescent years who is being trained to think and 
speak in terms of the church. Ask any group of church 
young people anywhere what organization they think of 



78 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

when you say Christian education, and they will reply, "The 
Sunday school," or "The church college." Ask them what 
term they think of when you say training for service, and 
they will respond, "Christian Endeavor," "Epworth League," 
or "Baptist Young People's Union." Ask them what or- 
ganization they think of when you say missions, and they 
will reply, "Young Ladies' Circle," "Mission Band," "Tri- 
angle Club," etc. In five or more years of testing now the 
author has yet to hear an individual or a group respond, 
"The church." 1 

7. The church board of religious education. To cor- 
relate these various agencies of the church a board or com- 
mittee of religious education is needed, made up of the 
pastor, the director of religious education if there is one, 
the superintendent of the Sunday school, the presidents of 
the various societies and leaders of clubs, and representa- 
tives, three or four in number, from the recognized official 
body of the church — the official board or the local con- 
ference. 

This committee supervises all educational work. It plans 
the provision for the physical needs of the young, including 
all recreational work; it plans all programs of study; it 
passes upon all provisions for worship by the young; it 
directs and coordinates the work of the young people's 
societies, classes, clubs, and all forms of societies among 
the young; it seeks to provide an adequate, coordinated, 
unified program of instruction, social association and ac- 
tivity for the religious development of the young. 

The modern church, as a result of the work of the com- 
mittee on religious education, presents to all its people a 
unified, comprehensive program for childhood and youth. 
It sets this program as an integral part of the program of 
the church, protecting it from invasion and calling for the 
support necessary to carry it out. It keeps this program 
before its people. The scheme for childhood and youth is 
just as much an essential part of the published plan of 
the church in its "bulletin" as is the period of worship. 
There is developed thus a church consciousness of the 
reality of the child's religious life, a recognition of the 
child as a factor in religious life. And, what is equally 
important, wherever the plan is intelligently and steadily 

1 Youth and the Church, pages 13, 14. 



YOUTH AND THE CHURCH 79 

pursued, there is created in the child's mind a sense of 
a real and normal place in the life of the church. This is 
precisely what the child needs. He must not think of him- 
self as being temporarily tucked into a negligible corner 
of the church called the Sunday school; he must feel that, 
through the school as a real part of the church and through 
all its other youth activities, he really belongs; this is his 
church. 1 

8. Expecting adolescents to join the chnrch. The 

third requisite is that the church should plan for and ex- 
pect its adolescents to join the church. This is our country, 
our America; but at twenty-one we find ourselves members 
of the civil body as never before. Now definite responsi- 
bilities fall upon us. We must assume the obligations of 
citizenship for ourselves. Just so, the young should be 
taught to think of the church as their church, to find them- 
selves quite at home in its membership and life. But the 
time arrives when each for himself must acknowledge his 
obligations to the institution and to the Master and must 
assume responsibilities not before shared. Is it not per- 
fectly clear that the church that, year after year, thus 
ministers to the growing life of its young, organizes the 
study, worship, recreation, and service life into one com- 
plete whole, may reasonably expect to reap rich rewards 
in "accessions on confession of faith" from this same group, 
especially if it shall take the trouble to give this natural 
desire for self-expression through personal identification 
in the membership of the church a place in the program of 
the year? 

How this may be carried out may vary in detail. One 
illustration will suffice to show the essential features. For 
more than a dozen years a pastor has regularly, with the 
coming of the New Year's season, when resolutions and 
promises are the order of the day, called attention to the 
opportunities, the privileges, and the duty of membership 
in the Christian Church. Backed by a comprehensive pro- 
gram of religious education in his Sunday school and in 

1 The Modern Sunday School, Cope, pages 23, 24. 



80 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

the various societies, he has asked Sunday-school teachers, 
parents, and others to present the matter of these privileges 
and duties to the young. He has secured a list of those 
whose years naturally suggest that the time is ripe for the 
forward step, and to the parents of these children and 
young people he has addressed himself, not from the pulpit 
but personally in the homes. He has called together those 
who would like to talk over the matter of joining the 
church and added his instructions to the well-arranged 
studies of the Sunday school; he has taken time from a 
busy pastor's life to become thoroughly acquainted with 
those who come to him. The result has been that never has 
a year elapsed under his ministry that boys and girls 
of his church failed to respond to such training and such 
pastoral oversight. This is far different, as one may easily 
see, from the hastily arranged and altogether unrelated 
emotional upheaval called Decision Day. 

The fourth requisite is that the church shall utilize the 
energies and enthusiasms of youth in its life. This is done 
when the various societies are discovered to be the church 
at work. It is furthered by giving the youth of the church 
some official recognition upon all committees involving 
their immediate interests. For, after all, we grow toward 
freedom and self-direction by exercising our powers. The 
self-organized departments and classes of the Sunday 
school, the self-organized societies and clubs, the self- 
directed activities of the young, and their active participa- 
tion in formulating plans as well as in executing them all 
help toward the end desired. It is not impossible that 
many a pastor can learn how to make his service of worship 
as well as his sermon fit the needs of the adolescents by 
putting them upon his committees on worship and by con- 
sulting them freely and frequently about his pulpit minis- 
trations. For, after all, inexperienced as these youths are, 
they know what pleases and what displeases them, and they 
are more frank in their commendations and their criticisms 
than are many of their elders. 



YOUTH AND THE CHURCH 81 

It is discovered that the church makes a tremendous ap- 
peal to those youths who find in it a real outlet for their 
social and religious natures and who learn to participate in . 
its life. Many fail to make this connection because it has 
not been made plain that the various organizations and 
activities in which youth are engaged are the church. Fur- 
ther, there has been failure to provide adequate instruction 
and proper recreational and social activities to nourish their 
growing social natures. And, too often, irrational and 
highly dramatic methods have been used to induce the 
individual to ''come into" the church instead of attempting 
to help him see the advantages and opportunities for larger 
self-expression and for service. The life of the church has 
not been organized to meet the needs of the youth. 

With a graded curriculum, with correlated activities run- 
ning throughout the various organizations, with plans 
wisely and sanely laid for "opening the doors of the church" 
to the young, for training them in its life, and for their 
anticipation in its further development, we shall stop the 
"leak" that so weakens the forces of Christianity to-day. 

Questions 

1. Is the intermediate pupil ripe for church membership? 
Why? Think of his intellectual, his spiritual, and his so- 
cial interests. 

2. Was joining the church in your own case conforming 
to tradition, satisfying a social impulse, making public a 
new inner relation, or all three? 

3. How does the graded series of lessons prepare pupils 
for church membership? Mention such courses as are 
especially helpful at this point, and suggest reasons for 
your choice. 

4. What four requisites belong to a complete program for 
incorporating the young into the life of the church? 

Observation 
Make a careful survey of the Intermediate-Senior De- 



82 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

partment to discover (1) how many are church members; 
(2) how many are actively engaged in church activities. 
Talk with the pupils and learn, if possible, if they feel 
themselves really responsible for the success of the church. 
Is there a difference between church members and non- 
church members in their attitude? Submit your findings to 
the workers' conference. 



PART II 

MEANS FOR DEVELOPING THE INTERMEDIATE- 
SENIOR 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE WORKER'S TASK 

What is the task of the intermediate-senior workers who 
carry the responsibility for the religious education of these 
youths? In view of the growing lives with which the inter- 
mediate-senior worker is confronted, with their common 
characteristics, their rapidly developing bodies, their awak- 
ening sex consciousness, their likenesses and their differ- 
ences; considering also the church together with its various 
organizations and institutions; keeping in mind the way 
that God is operating in building up character and in trans- 
forming lives: how is the worker's task to be defined? How 
may one state the aim? What is the end sought, and how 
may it be accomplished? 

Every reader will say at once that the end sought is 
Christian character in the pupils. Everything else — Bible 
study, missionary biography, social or philanthropic class 
or departmental activities, and worship — is only means to 
the one end, namely, the development of a Christlike 
character within each member of the department. But how 
does character develop, and what are the steps necessary 
to the attainment of this purpose? 

1. How character develops. Character is not a thing. 
It is a process, a going on, a way of meeting life's situa- 
tions. It might be called a tendency to grow wise; that is, 
to think, and to think always more adequately, foreseeing 
the consequences of action and choosing those lines of 
action that will accomplish our purposes. But what about 
these purposes? Where do they come from, and how do 
we decide which to follow? We have opposing purposes 
or desires leading us in opposite directions. The vacillat- 
ing individual who follows now one purpose, now another, 
lacks something of the stability we feel belongs to the 
highest type of character. His purposes are not har- 

85 



86 LEADERS OP ^OUTH 

monious. His life is not organized. He has no supreme 
purpose controlling all the rest. He does not consider ulti- 
mate consequences but thinks, rather, of the consequences 
of each isolated activity he may be engaged in or thinks 
only of the consequences to himself. We all know the 
type of man, now happily growing scarcer, that in private 
life or in church life is all that we could ask for in kind- 
ness, gentleness, generosity, but who in business or in pro- 
fessional life follows the relentless policy of cut-throat 
competition, paying starvation wages, requiring long hours, 
and employing children to do the work of adults. There is 
no doubt that this successful man thinks. But he thinks 
only about means. The ends he is pursuing or the conse- 
quences they entail do not occupy his attention. The values 
he stands for in private life — good will, kindness, fairness, 
— he repudiates in public life. He is an unorganized or 
divided personality. He has failed to think about the ulti- 
mate consequences of his acts and to harmonize his life 
according to some purpose which he has deliberately chosen 
to follow because he deems it to be the highest for him. 
When a man brings his purpose into the thinking, weighs 
carefully the relative value of possible ends of action, 
and its possible consequence, and then, with his whole 
soul, follows that line of action which will most worthily 
accomplish what seems to him to be the best, then that 
man is religious. If the purpose he follows is the Chris- 
tian purpose, and if the means he employs conform to 
Christian standards, then he is Christian. 1 

Christian character, then, is the way of meeting the varied 
situations of life in a thoroughly Christian fashion. It is 
an attitude — a Christian attitude — established in us, which 
in every given situation will seek to determine the sort of 
choice we shall make and the kind of conduct that we 
shall pursue. It involves thinking, that one may know 
what is Christian and how each act shall eventuate; it 
involves habit, that these choices shall have become so 
established that to do the Christian thing becomes constant 
and natural; but it requires will also, for these choices 
must frequently be made in opposition to the more animal 
and, therefore, more immediately compelling desires. To 



1 Childhood and Character, Hartshorne, pages 169-70. 



THE WORKER'S TASK 87 

know what is Christian and what is not, to determine to do 
what is Christian and not to do the opposite, and to ac- 
custom oneself to face life's situations in view of this 
knowledge and this determination is to possess Christian 
character. 

2. The many-sided task. The task before the worker 
with these pupils, therefore, is many-sided. By some 
method he must get them to see what is Christian, to dis- 
cover what Christian ideals and standards are. This is a 
matter of knowledge, and its acquirement is under the laws 
of the learning process, just as is the attaining of any other 
knowledge. Study, discussion, comparison, generalization, 
must all be employed. The laws of the mechanism of the 
mind must be used if success is to be won. 

But, as has so often been repeated, to know is one thing; 
to do, another. Doing is determined by our preferences or 
choices. We do the thing that in the long run we prefer; 
or, as it is often stated, we do the thing that will give us 
the greatest satisfaction. If we would choose the Christian 
standard of action, we must see and feel that that standard 
will best satisfy us. This means that we must come to 
prefer it, to love it. So the worker with teen-age pupils 
must find some means of getting his pupils to love the 
Christian life. Not only must they know what is Christian, 
but they must be taught to prefer what is Christian. 

But even this is not enough. One may know the violin 
and its laws of musical production and may love its music 
better than any other, but one must practice if one would 
perfect oneself in its art. Christian living is an art, also, 
though many do not seem to have discovered this fact. The 
worker with teen-age boys and girls must not only teach 
them what Christian standards are and inspire them with 
love for Christian living, but he must give them practice in 
the art of such conduct if he would have them make their 
religious life habitual and easy of accomplishment. More- 
over, in the actual attempts at Christian living these be- 
ginners need much practice and much counsel. Knowing, 



SS LEADERS OF YOUTH 

feeling, and doing must be worked into a harmonious 
whole, lest fateful divisions in personality ensue. 

3. The threefold aim. Summarized, our threefold aim 
is as follows: 

1. Fruitful knowledge: knowledge of religious truths that 
can be set at work in the daily life of the child now and in 
the years that lie ahead. 

2. Right attitudes: the religious warmth, responsiveness, 
interests, ideals, loyalties, and enthusiasm which lead to 
action and to a true sense of what is most worth while. 

3. Skill in living: the power and the will to use the re- 
ligious knowledge and enthusiasms supplied by education 
in shaping the acts and conduct of the daily life. 1 

The "fruitful knowledge ,, must be found in the material 
of the curriculum, the studies that shall be decided upon 
for this department. Year by year such courses must be 
pursued as shall add to the stock of knowledge that the 
pupils already possess and as shall furnish information 
needed for their immediate and future life's tasks. 

"Right attitudes" must be established through interest 
that may be awakened in the right upon its presentation in 
human biographies and in that most intimate and personal 
life of the teacher and of other Christian associates; and, 
further, through the satisfactions that are found in doing 
the right. 

The personality of the teacher counts for more than all 
else. His own life, his own enthusiasm for the Christian 
life, becomes contagious — the "contagion of character" of 
which Hillis writes — and if he is a real leader, his view- 
point and ideals are adopted by his youthful companions. 

King 2 has given us a series of retrospective visions of 
various high-school teachers and the effect that they pro- 
duced upon their students. From among these the follow- 
ing has been taken as indicative of the large place the 



1 How to Teach Religion, Betts, page 48. 

2 From The High-School Age, by Irving King, copyright, 1914. Used by 
special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. 



THE WORKER'S TASK 89 

personality of the teacher takes in the lives of those who 
come under him: 

"My best teacher was always fair and just, both in regard 
to our work in class and our conduct in assembly room. 
She was kind when we tried and made mistakes and never 
discouraged us by sarcasm; she was always tastefully 
dressed both for school and for outside affairs. All these 
characteristics along with her ever readiness to help and 
encourage in everything that concerned us made her a 
sort of model for us all. We used to say, 'When I grow up, 
I am going to be just like Miss L.' " 

"The high-school teacher who stands out most prominently 
in my mind is not the one who taught with the greatest 
success nor the one who seemed to have the best education; 
but rather the one who gave us all she had of sympathy and 
interest. Her subject was English, but she taught us more 
of humanity than of language forms. There was a depth 
and a breadth about her that went far toward giving the 
boys an interest in school life." 

"The influence of some of these teachers will have a 
lasting effect upon my life, and I am sure there are others 
who will say the same. I well remember the little woman 
who for three years occupied the principal's chair — small in 
stature but mighty in moral principle. It was she who 
set the standard for right doing and good class work and 
refused to give approbation for those who remained be- 
low it." 

"As I have mentioned before, there was a certain high- 
school teacher whom I respected and looked up to as a 
model of perfection. She made me unconsciously take a 
greater interest in my work and helped me to build up 
ideals which I still retain." 

One of these days, when we shall be able to parallel these 
high-school recollections with similar studies from the 
Sunday school, we shall find that the teacher is the key 
to interest, to ideals, to enthusiasm, to character building. 

Loyalties to the truth and to the institutions that stand 
for the truth as found in Christ are established in the 
activities, social and recreational, which the class or depart- 
ment must furnish; and the everyday life of the pupils 
is discovered to them as furnishing further opportunities 
for displaying such loyalties. 



90 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

"Skill in living" must be developed in large part outside 
the Sunday school. It must be gained in the actual world of 
school and home, of play and business. But the leader of 
these youths has it within his power to counsel, to warn, 
and to guide by his example in working out the ideals 
established in the school. The hikes, the camping, the 
jrecreations, in which he participates with the young friends, 
and the experiences of the class or department all furnish 
him peculiar opportunities. Further, he may wisely direct 
in specific tasks of fellowship or service, of comradeship 
or of genuine moral discipline, which shall furnish the 
pupils with real experiments in Christian living. 

The fountain of all enthusiasms, of all knowledge of 
Christian standards, and the key to all such loyalty, since 
the days of the disciples to now, have been found in per- 
sonal devotion to Jesus Christ. These are the days when 
such personal devotions are most easily made, when the 
entire life responds most gladly to the summons "Follow 
me." More than at any other time, then, should the re- 
ligious leader aid in creating actual, sincere attachment 
between his pupils and the Master. Christ must become 
the dominant power, the centralizing and organizing force 
in the lives of these boys and girls. His power to inspire, 
to control the life to the largest and best ends must be felt, 
and that power and control must be sought by each. 

4. Intermediate aims. The aim as presented above has 
been summarized for the intermediate worker by the 
Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denominations as 
follows: 

1. To secure the acceptance of Jesus Christ as a per- 
sonal Saviour. 

2. To cultivate an ever-increasing knowledge of Christian 
ideals and of the Bible as the source of these ideals. 

3. To secure on the part of boys and girls a personal 
acceptance and open acknowledgment of these ideals in 
their daily life, through Bible study, prayer, Christian 
conduct, recreation, and service. 

4. To awaken in boys and girls a growing appreciation 



THE WORKER'S TASK 91 

of the privileges and opportunities of church membership, 
that they may come to have a deep and genuine reverence 
for the Lord's Day and the Lord's house. 

5. To secure* an all-round development through the culti- 
vation of the social consciousness and the expression of 
the physical, social, and religious life in service for others. 

As the years advance, such changes in aim are necessary 
as shall fit into the growing life of these youths. The 
senior years yield added opportunity to test some of the 
ideals that the earlier years have established. The social 
consciousness has been organizing itself more completely. 
Larger initiative and responsibility have come into being 
and are sensed. Hence, the following statement of aims 
has been determined by the Council for the senior worker: 

5. Senior aims. 

1. The acceptance of Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour. 
(Some may not have made this choice as yet. Others may 
renew that acceptance on the new plane of their deeper 
emotional experiences.) 

2. The testing of earlier ideals in the light of enlarging 
experience and the consequent adjustment of life choices 
and conduct. 

3. The expression of the rapidly developing social con- 
sciousness through the home, church, and community. 

4. The development of initiative, responsibility, and self- 
expression in Christian service. 

6. How personality grows. The personality to be de- 
veloped during these years is not a "raw" personality, nor 
is the character altogether yet to be made. Personality has 
been for twelve years in the making, and character has 
been forming through the process of choice, conduct, the 
suppression of this natural inclination, and the formation 
of that new like or dislike. In this Christian land these 
pupils have unconsciously caught much of its ideals and, 
though they have not thought largely upon their life 
philosophies, they have been "picking up" religious and 
moral information. Their presuppositions have been es- 
tablished in part, and their attitudes somewhat formed. 
Moreover, most of these pupils have had definite Christian 



92 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

teaching in the Sunday school and at home. Already they 
know what certain of the Christian standards are, though 
they may not be able to define them. They have discovered 
that Christians are those who are kind yet just and 
honest, that generosity and service are appreciated. In 
a childish way Christ has been loved. The church has 
represented organized religion. The Bible is the book of 
their religion. They may and likely have made prayer a 
fixed habit. 

Now, crude as these ideas are, and partly formed as is the 
character, it is far from zero. Upon these conceptions 
and misconceptions we must build. This character, already 
forming, must go on to more perfect development. Because 
he must deal with this material already wrought upon, 
the intermediate-senior worker must know something of 
what has gone before. How character forms and what 
knowledge is gained during the earlier years of childhood 
are essentials for further leadership. If the Sunday school 
has been carefully graded, the lessons well taught, the 
spirit of worship developed, the ideas of service exemplified 
and practiced, the task will be far different from that of 
the leader whose pupils come without any of these acquire- 
ments or advantages. For the worker in these departments 
is only at one point touching lives that flow on. His must 
be the task to mold a little. The sum total of the charac- 
ters that are being wrought out is the result of many 
teachers, companions, influences. But what he does is of 
tremendous importance and must be done wisely even 
though quickly. 

One who has read thoughtfully the earlier chapters has 
discovered the forces upon which he can rely in this task 
of reshaping human character and destiny. These forces 
include the desire for knowledge ; the abounding curiosity 
which by these years is turned toward causal relations, 
personal efforts in conduct, heroism, interest in nature and 
nature's ways, and organization for social achievement. 
The "gang" is father to the church, the state, and the busi- 



THE WORKER'S TASK 93 

ness enterprise in one. Leadership is developing, and the 
qualities of leadership are richly appreciated. Further, 
the simple explanations of childhood do not suffice. Real- 
ism is giving place to crude imagination, while imagination 
is going on to give color to social living. 

In all this the desire to know, to do, to achieve, to be 
worthy of praise, to unravel mysteries, and to live with the 
group is evident. Need anyone point out that upon these 
very characteristics the worker may rely to arouse interest, 
to stimulate study, to secure cooperation in his enterprise? 
He may depend on the social impulse, properly encouraged 
and exercised, to cement his class together. He may trust 
the interest in heroes and their moral as well as physical 
prowess to secure attention for lesson study. He may 
count upon the boy's or girl's search for the inner meaning- 
fulness of life to give him a hearing regarding its bigness 
and its mystery. He may depend on the sense of growing 
personal worth to demand full-sized tasks in thinking and 
acting. He can trust the new life that is springing up in 
youth as adolescence passes to its middle period to require 
an answer to its perplexing but unvoiced question, "What 
is this world and what is my place in it?" These are not 
phrases but realities that, in the lives of the young, can 
be brought to serve, must be brought to serve, the purpose 
of the religious worker with youth. For it is out of their 
natural interests as these interests develop and manifest 
themselves that their acquired interests grow. What is 
sought is a compelling interest in the Christian life, to 
which end must be utilized the keen intellectual, social, 
and emotional powers of the pupil. 

What the worker, then, is attempting at this age is to 
utilize the pupils' experience, their dawning instincts and 
their interests, to the end that they may develop thoughts, 
attitudes, and conduct in conformity with Christianity, 
discover an attractive personality in Jesus Christ, and be 
prepared to grow further in Christian knowledge and ex- 
perience. 



94 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Questions 

1. What is Christian character, and what does it involve? 

2. What is the threefold aim of the teacher, and how 
does he attempt to fulfill each aim? 

3. What conclusions may one draw from the "recollec- 
tions" of one's high-school teachers? 

4. State the aims of the Intermediate Department; of 
the Senior Department. 

5. Why must the worker with these pupils know what 
they have learned in the earlier grades? 

Observation 

Compare a boy or girl of nine or ten with another of 
fourteen, noting their interests, knowledge, skill, motives. 
What progress can you discern in the development of the 
older? What evidences of the development of personality? 



CHAPTER IX 
DEPARTMENTAL ORGANIZATION 

1. Self-expression through, organization and man- 
agement. Intermediates have reached the age when op- 
portunities for self-direction and self-expression are con- 
stantly sought. It is the very life of hoys and girls from 
twelve years and <5n to do things and to control their own 
doing. How far shall the organization of the Teen-Age 
Department take cognizance of this phase of their devel- 
opment? 

Before answering that question we shall have to under- 
stand quite fully the moral value of self-directed living. 
We come into the world altogether helpless creatures. We 
arrive at manhood's and womanhood's estate to find that 
we are to be self-directing, responsible men and women. 
Between these two extremes we pass through a period of 
acquiring freedom. As rapidly as experience gives us a 
background for judging, and as proper coordination of 
thinking, feeling, and acting is effected, we find ourselves 
restive under restraint and demand with greater or less 
success that the charge of our lives be turned over to us. 
More than this: we can become free only as we practice 
freedom. The limits of our freedom at any one point are 
fairly well denned by our ability to handle ourselves, on 
the one hand, and by the success we display in fitting into 
the social life around us, on the other. We are always in 
the process of achieving freedom. 

Now, truly moral living is living happily by self-thought 
and self-direction in the social group. There can be no 
true morality where freedom is entirely denied. This 
means, obviously, that if the Sunday school is to make 
moral and religious men and women out of boys and girls, 
plans must be matured by means of which spontaneous 
moral and religious life may express itself. 

95 



96 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

The Intermediate-Senior Departments seem to be un- 
usually good places for experimentation in self-directed 
group living. If the Junior Department has been properly 
organized, the members already have been initiated into the 
art of class and department organization, of committee 
work and group thinking and acting. If not, the beginning 
of personal and social self-expression should by all means 
be made now. 

Recalling the liberty of action permitted American youth 
in home and school, one need not be surprised to find con- 
siderable initiative manifested among them, especially as 
the public schools are endeavoring to do away with their 
former autocracy and to function as schools of democracy. 
Classrooms have furnished opportunity for discussion and 
debate, and the athletic field has provided excellent chances 
for organization and management. 

The Sunday school must take cognizance of this develop- 
ing social consciousness and, in the organization of the de- 
partment, should plan not alone for direction and oversight 
but also for thoroughgoing self-direction. 

2. The kind of organization needed. What sort of 
organization, then, is required to meet these new demands? 
How far shall the pupils participate in the active control 
of the department? 

The kind of organization required will depend in part on 
the size of the school. In small schools intermediates and 
seniors will likely be thrown together. It may happen 
that only two classes will represent these two groups — one 
for the boys and the other for the girls. In general it 
may be held that unless there are at least two classes in 
each department — four classes in all — it is better to main- 
tain an Intermediate-Senior Department than to attempt 
to sustain two departments separately. For practical pur- 
poses it may be advisable to keep this joint relation until 
six or eight classes are reached. But, regardless of the 
size of the school, an Intermediate-Senior Department is 
always possible. 



DEPARTMENTAL ORGANIZATION 



97 



3. A suggestive form of organization. The following 
is a simple form of departmental organization for an In- 
termediate (twelve to fourteen) or Senior Depart- 
ment (fifteen to seventeen), or for an Intermediate- 
Senior, or Teen- Age (twelve to seventeen) Department. 
The form is not original; it is an adaptation. If desired, a 
constitution may be formulated and adopted by the de- 
partment: 

Form of Organization 
Officers Active Advisory 

President. Pastor 

Vice-president. General superintendent. 

Secretary. Sunday-school board. 

Treasurer. Church board. 

Department superin- 
tendent, or counselor. 



Committees 

of the 
Department 



Name 
Executive 

Program 



Service 



Duties 
Usual duties of such a committee. 

To arrange for all departmental 
sessions except socials. The 
vice-president is chairman. 

To see that the department and 
classes have regular and real 
missionary education and service 
activities. This committee works 
in harmony with the Sunday- 
school missionary committee. 

Recreation To plan and to see to the carry- 
ing out of the recreational and 
social life of the department, se- 
lect ushers and "welcome" door- 
keepers, etc. 

Note: The superintendent of the department and the 
president are ex officio members of all committees. Each 
committee should have a teacher as adviser. The foregoing 
are the essential committees; others may be added as 
needed. The departmental superintendent and the teachers 
are elected by the responsible board of the church or school; 
the other officers should be chosen by their fellows. 



98 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

The superintendent is responsible to the administrative 
head of the school for the execution of school plans and for 
the success of his own unit in the larger organization. If 
he is skillful, he will find his chief duty to lie in counseling, 
advising, and cooperating with his teachers and pupils. 
Never a dictator but always a wise counselor and friend, 
he thinks of the welfare of the entire department, plans 
to increase its size and efficiency, defends his classes from 
intrusions, seeks new workers for his field, works out with 
the appropriate committees programs of worship, of recrea- 
tion, and of service, discovers and corrects maladjustments 
in the organization, and is the constant inspiration of the 
entire group. Through reading and observation he has 
made himself master of the available knowledge regarding 
his department and through personal contact with teachers 
and pupils has learned their problems and is ready to help 
solve them. 

The president of the department is officer of the day, its 
immediate administrative chief, chosen by his fellow^ pupils 
and teachers because of his fitness for the task and for the 
training in leadership which the task will give him. He 
presides over the departmental worship service and the 
social meetings of the group, is head of the cabinet (con- 
sisting of the officers and teachers of the department) and 
is ex officio member of all committees. The vice-president 
fulfills the duties of the president in the absence of the 
latter and, for the sake of training in leadership, sometimes 
in his presence. As chairman of the program committee he 
is largely responsible for the training in worship that the 
department receives. (See Chapters XI and XII.) 

The secretary should keep an exact record of the enroll- 
ment and attendance of the department, reporting the same 
to the general secretary of the school and also providing 
for giving publicity to his own department. The business 
session of the group may furnish the opportunity for such 
publicity; charts and displays may be utilized in the de- 
partment rooms. 



DEPARTMENTAL ORGANIZATION 99 

The treasurer should keep an accurate record of all of- 
ferings, turning them over to the general treasurer of the 
school, receiving from him in return such amounts for 
current expenses and service activities as may be agreed 
upon. All such information of receipts and expenditures 
should be made public to all members of the department, 
that giving may become truly educational. 

Undoubtedly many will be inclined to question the ad- 
visability of placing so great a responsibility upon the 
young. The truth is that we are only just discovering how 
well these young people measure up to such demands. This 
does not mean that unguided boys and girls are able to 
plan most wisely or execute most perfectly. It is vastly 
easier for adults to take the supervision into their own 
hands. But such adult supervision fails to train in self- 
direction and leadership, an essential part of the work in this 
department. Experience has taught that youth is far more 
capable of leadership than we adults have thought, and that 
those elected to these offices are much more ready to seek 
and to take advice than we had supposed. 

4. The organized class. Each class needs to be consti- 
tuted an organized group also for training in Christian co- 
operation. Problems arising within the class, plans for 
midweek activity, campaigns for membership, and such 
other matters as belong to class life should originate in 
and be open for the discussion of each class. A class is 
"organized to do something. There is no other reason for 
organization." 

The relation of the teacher to the organized class has 
become clearer with our widening experience. He becomes, 
because of his own personality, the leader "of the gang," or 
group. By virtue of his office it is his task to stimulate 
interest in lesson study, to present the lesson, and to help 
the class to incorporate in life the truths taught. 

What shall be the size of the class, that it may best 
work out its plans? Because of the social interest of this 
group a larger number can be handled in this than in the 



100 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Junior Department. A group of six or eight boys or girls 
with common interests and similar intellectual ability is 
large enough to work very successfully. On the other hand, 
ten to twelve is not too large a number to work well to- 
gether if the teacher is able to inspire a real group spirit. 
The smaller number has the advantage of the closer per- 
sonal contact, more thoroughgoing understanding, and bet- 
ter class work. The larger group, however, has an advan- 
tage in committee work and in midweek activities. Where 
classes are small the social life of the class will merge more 
readily in the common interests of the department, whereas 
the larger classes tend more naturally to build up their own 
group interests distinct from the interests of the depart- 
ment. Those leaders who wish to keep the department 
functioning as a whole will find it decidedly advantageous 
to break up the group into smaller classes. 

5. A suggestive form of organization for tiiese 
classes. 

Officers. — President: to preside at all sessions of the 
class; to be responsible for devotional and business sessions 
of the class; to be responsible for the order of the class; 
to close the class session; to give every member of the class 
something to do. 

Note. — The teacher and the president are coworkers in 
both building and using the class. To this end he and the 
class teacher should have at least one talk each week about 
the class. 

Vice-president (to be found among seniors only) : fills 
the president's office when needed; is chairman of the pro- 
gram committee. 

Secretary: to keep full and accurate permanent records 
of the class. To keep the weekly attendance and report 
it to the secretary of the department. 

Note. — The records of each pupil should contain the 
name, address, age, relation to church, school grade, occu- 
pation if at work, date of joining the class and of leaving 
it, together with the reason for leaving. These records may 
be in a book or on cards. 

Treasurer: to receive from each member, upon entering 
class, his offering; to keep records of contributions of class; 
if the duplex system is used, to keep record of pledges and 



DEPARTMENTAL ORGANIZATION 101 

of payments; to keep the members of the class informed of 
the objects of their giving and of amounts received and 
spent; to pass on to the department treasurer the moneys 
of the class. 

Committees. — Executives: made up of the teacher and 
the officers of the class; to develop the class to the largest 
efficiency. 

Program: in senior classes only; to arrange for the lesson 
courses for the class; to see that missionary and temperance 
instruction is given; to arrange for a class program that 
provides actual training in leadership for the entire group. 

Membership: to look up absentees; to seek new members 
for the class or the school. 

Service: to plan the service activities of the class such 
as result in providing aid to the needy, missionary barrels, 
etc. (See Chapter XV.) 

Recreation: to provide at least once each month for some 
venture "just for fun." Social and business sessions may 
be combined. (See Chapter XII for list of activities.) 

Note. — Every member of the class should be assigned to 
one of these committees and put to work at once. The 
committee on recreation is omitted from the intermediate- 
class organization, the recreational program being devel- 
oped by the teacher and president jointly. 

6. Hints to workers with organized groups. The ef- 
ficiency of the department or of the class is determined not 
by the number of officers and committeemen but by the vital 
interest created. This means that organization must grow 
up from within rather than be saddled upon the pupils. 
They must make their own rules and execute them, think 
out their own problems and solve them, plan their own 
activities and be allowed to execute them. To do all this 
the superintendent and teachers will need enough patience 
and grace to be willing to let the group learn by its blun- 
derings quite as much as by its successes. The fun of the 
group spoiled because the committee forgot to provide re- 
freshments, an hour of worship made tedious because the 
vice-president had no program or a poor one, foolish and 
impossible laws enacted which cannot be executed, — these 
are the means by which youth learns the better way but 
also the experiences that try the soul of the Sunday-school 



102 LEADERS OF YOUTH ' 

worker. But there is no other way by which religious and 
social adjustment can he so quickly brought about and life 
come to its own. 

Those who have worked with pupils of this age have 
found certain things imperative. One is that constant and 
unremitting effort is necessary to success. However well 
organized the department or each class may be, the super- 
intendent of the department is the key person in the larger 
group, and the teacher the key person in the smaller group. 
By personal solicitation, by advice, by urging, by use of the 
mail and of the telephone, those composing the groups must 
be made to feel responsibility, to be pushed into service. 
Memories are short, and initiative soon exhausts itself in 
our youth. Counselors and teachers must learn the difficult 
task of standing back while others do, yet all the time see- 
ing that things are really accomplished. 

Another fact emphasized by experience is the need of 
programs. The tendency, especially in youth, to let things 
go until the time needed, to put off to-day what can be done 
conveniently to-morrow, is well known. To let such a spirit 
.dominate is fatal. Nothing must be left to chance: hence 
the need of frequent committee meetings, of cabinet meet- 
ings, of business sessions of the entire class or of the whole 
department. We have just as good times at the picnic, on 
the hike, or at the party as we plan for. We shall get in 
a rut if we are not constantly planning something new. 
Everlasting vigilance is the price of success, and in this 
department double vigilance is needed. 

A third factor making for success is to plan far ahead. 
A few months in advance seem to the members of the de- 
partment too far away to be real and to need immediate 
attention. Yet Christmas is upon us ere we know it. 
Easter comes all too soon. Field Day is impossible because 
it had not been thought of in time. A program of worship, 
another of recreation, another of service, should all be 
made out early in the year, subject to such modification as 
will become necessary. These programs should have in out- 



DEPARTMENTAL ORGANIZATION 103 

line the chief features to "be incorporated in the year's 
plans, indicating facts, time, and place. To follow such a 
schedule is to assure success. Without it one is often lost 
because at the moment, and in the light of to-day's pressing 
need the larger vision is absent. 

Last of all, short terms of office have proved more satis- 
factory than long tenure. Again, the brevity of youth's 
enthusiasm is to be taken into account as well as the ad- 
vantage of increasing the numerical possibilities of leader- 
ship through experimentation. It may be that the least 
likely pupil will prove himself a real master when the 
chance comes for him to assume responsibility. At any rate, 
he has his right to a chance to prove himself. 

The end of the department and of class organization is 
not organization, let it be repeated, but the making of 
character. Therefore, all organization should show fruits 
in lives trained in service, in leadership, and in character 
growth. 

Questions 

1. Why should the pupils of these departments be or- 
ganized? 

2. What officers and committees are needed in the depart- 
ments? in the classes? 

3. Should we permit student leadership at the points 
where failure seems inevitable? 

4. Should we permit mistakes to be made? 

5. What relation should the leader sustain to his group? 
Why the word "counselor"? 

Obsekyation 

Observe an organized class of teen-age pupils. Does the 
organization function, or is the president only a "phoney" 
president? Is the organization on paper only? 



CHAPTER X 
OUTFITTING THE DEPARTMENT 

1. The assembly room. We have indicated the need for 
certain modifications in the present housing of these pupils. 
It is highly desirable — well-nigh imperative — that we pro- 
vide a room for the worship of the group and a separate 
room for the instruction of each class. The first demand 
grows out of a recognition of the needs of departmental life. 
These boys and girls do not want to be considered one with 
the younger element of the school; they feel grown up and, 
comparatively, they are grown. The break at twelve is 
genuine. Social cohesion and intellectual comity of in- 
terests make of this group a unit distinct from those be- 
low, and their limited experience cuts them off from those 
above. 

Further, the demand for worship as a part of religious 
training makes necessary an assembly room in which the 
programs planned by the department can be executed with- 
out disturbing the remainder of the school and without 
being disturbed by the other departments. This room 
should be light, well ventilated, and in every respect at- 
tractive in appearance. The size of the room is determined 
by the size of the department, but certain well-established 
rules need to be recognized if one is building or planning 
to build. The floor space should be such that each indi- 
vidual can have at least fifteen square feet; that is, a room 
15 by 30 feet will accommodate thirty pupils. On this 
basis it is easy to determine the necessary dimensions of 
the projected assembly room. 

Moreover, sufficient light and air are required to give 
necessary ventilation. Preferably, if possible, two sides 
should be exposed, so as to allow for light at side and back. 
If this is not possible, additional window space is required 

104 



OUTFITTING THE DEPARTMENT 105 

at the side. A dark, gloomy room is not provocative of the 
best spirit for worship, and artificial light should, for 
reasons of eyestrain as well as of economy, be avoided. 

The decorations of this room require special care, a 
happy combination of reposefulness and cheer. For color 
tones of the wall buff, brown, or green are best. The wood- 
work should harmonize. Artistic use of colors lends itself 
to the development of good taste and gives charm to the 
home of the department. 

The furnishings for the departmental assembly room are 
as follows: 

(1) A piano, kept in tune. 

(2) A table for the use of president and counselor. 

(3) A table or desk for the use of the secretary and 
treasurer. This table should be near the entrance to the 
department for the double purpose of distributing class 
records and envelopes and of enabling these officers to keep 
oversight of the door in the temporary absence of the 
welcome committee. 

(4) Chairs of comfortable design and right height. These 
should be free from the floor, that they may be rearranged 
for socials and other departmental activities. 

(5) Pictures. The following are suggested by Athearn in 
The Church School: "The Man With the Hoe," Millet; 
"Moses," Michelangelo; "Mona Lisa," Da Vinci; "Sir Gala- 
had," Watts; "Christ and the Rich Young Ruler," Hof- 
mann; "The Angelus," Millet; "Frieze of the Prophets," 
Sargent; "Breaking Home Ties," Hovenden; "The Last 
Supper," Da Vinci; panoramic view of Jerusalem. 

(6) Bookcase. This may be of a design suitable to hold 
the reference and songbooks of the department and may 
have in addition, if a desk is not otherwise provided, a 
compartment for additional supplies and for the secretary's 
and treasurer's use. 

(7) Cloakrack or cloakroom. Preferably the cloakroom 
should be separate from the assembly room; however, some 
satisfactory arrangement for caring for the street gar- 



106 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

merits should be made in the room if not possible else- 
where; and by all means one should see that it is used 
rather than let the pupils sit through the session with 
heavy outer wraps upon them. A hat in the hand of an 
intermediate boy is an excellent weapon with which to hit 
his neighbor. One preventive of such conduct is to have a 
place for these missiles out of reach of mischievous hands. 

(8) Hymnbooks. These should be kept in the bookcase 
during the week to be distributed Sunday morning before 
the school assembles. At the latest they should be handed 
out by the welcome committee to each person as he enters. 
Keeping these books in good order furnishes one of the 
department service activities. The character of such song 
books is discussed in Chapters XI and XII. 

(9) Department records. These should include a card 
index of all pupils, the cards indicating name, address, age, 
school grade, or, if at work, the place of business, and 
such other data as may be needed in the work of the de- 
partment. This record, unlike the class record, is the 
permanent property of the department. As pupils are pro- 
moted or leave the school, this fact should be indicated on 
the card, and then these cards should be filed in a per- 
manent case for reference. The "live" cards should be 
kept by themselves for constant use. 

That the department may remember the birthdays of its 
members a birthday record (card file) may be kept, the 
names being arranged by month rather than alphabetically. 
Thus the person in charge will have no difficulty in send- 
ing birthday cards or an appropriate reminder at the 
proper time. 

A permanent loose-leaf record book in which to keep the 
record of all business of the department, including at- 
tendance and offerings, programs followed at worship or 
in recreation, together with the service activities, should 
also be a part of the equipment of the department. Without 
such record by means of which one may look back, check 
up this year's work with last, utilize valuable suggestions 



OUTFITTING THE DEPARTMENT 107 

a second time, avoid blunders, and generally keep alive 
to the development of the departmental experience and 
progress, one who acts as counselor will have to trust to 
faulty memory. Exactness in record is always to be desired 
if real progress is sought. 

The secretary and treasurer may keep their records 
separate from the above book, using for the purpose loose- 
leaf record books or, better, large filing cards. Every item 
of receipt and expenditure should be recorded and open to 
the inspection of every member of the department. Pub- 
licity's well not only for its educational value to the givers 
but also for its reaction upon those charged with public 
affairs. They are only custodians of others' funds, and it 
is especially important just at this age that trusteeship 
should be uppermost in the minds of those elected to office. 

2. The classrooms. Turning now to the needs of each 
class, we are emphatic in repeating that each class needs 
its own room. It should be a real room, and not a stall. 
Makeshifts such as that proposed in many modifications of 
the old Akron plan of Sunday-school architecture are de- 
lusions and not to be considered ideal in any particular. 

As the classes vary in size, so the rooms will have to 
vary likewise. The intermediate classes are smaller in 
general than are the senior classes. The social develop- 
ment of those older demands a larger group for its satis- 
faction. Hence, while the intermediates number from six 
to ten to a class, the seniors number from ten to twenty. 
Floor space in these classrooms must meet not only the 
requirements relative to proper air capacity but be large 
enough to admit of a table, around which the class sits, or 
armchairs, which require more space than the ordinary 
chair. Ten by 15 feet is too small for the smallest class, 
and 15 by 20 is scarcely large enough for the older group. 

It will demand considerable thought and skill to place 
these rooms in the ordinary church structure so as to 
permit sufficient light and ventilation. Accessibility to the 
assembly room is desirable but not so desirable as com- 



108 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

modious recitation rooms, for at this age the pupils find 
moving from one part of the building to another an easy- 
matter. Perhaps we shall find that the easiest solution and 
the only satisfactory one is to build the Sunday-school 
building separate from the church altogether, thereby per- 
mitting the development of a style of architecture thor- 
oughly adapted to Sunday-school needs. In the meantime 
a corridor is not an insuperable barrier between classrooms 
and assembly rooms. 

3. The intermediate classrooms. The furnishings of 
the intermediate classrooms are as follows: , 

(1) Chairs. These should be of such height as to insure 
comfort; the simple designs are to be preferred. 

(2) A table. This should be large enough to permit each 
pupil comfortable seating and working space about it. 
Writing, map drawing, notebook work, the use of stereo- 
scopic views and other pictures, all demand a table. Fur- 
ther, the class spirit develops about the informality and 
sociability afforded by a common table. With every face 
turned inward discipline and interest are made easy. 

(3) Filing cases. Unless the table is unusually well 
supplied with drawers, filing cases will be necessary, that 
each pupil may care for his tools — pencils, pens, crayons, 
library paste, yet-to-be-used pictures, etc. A Bible should 
be in each filing case, American Revised Version preferred. 

(4) Bookcase. This case is for reference books and 
should be ample enough to care for the filing cases when 
not in use. 

(5) Maps. Maps of Bible lands and of missionary 
fields are valuable additions to the equipment. 

(6) A small hand dictionary is indispensable. 

(7) One or two well-selected pictures add to the at- 
tractiveness of the room. 

The decoration of this room, like the assembly room, 
should be in good taste. Curtains at windows add ma- 
terially to its attractiveness and homelike appearance. 
Flowers, as often as possible, should be provided for the 



OUTFITTING THE DEPARTMENT 109 

class hour. Everything that will stimulate and guide the 
aesthetic sense should be encouraged, for just now youth is 
emerging from the seeming indifference of childhood to the 
larger appreciations of early maturity. 

4. The senior classrooms. Except for size, these are 
almost identical with the foregoing. One difference in fur- 
nishings should be noted. Seniors prefer the arm- or desk- 
chair to the table. Especially is this change necessary in 
the interest of economy of space. If anything except the ob- 
jectionable lecture method is used, it will be found neces- 
sary to have some depository for the pupils' books. The 
drawer beneath the seat of the desk chairs is a good 
receptacle for pencils, paste, etc. The desk itself will 
afford ample room for such constructive work as should 
be undertaken in class. At the same time these chairs 
serve admirably as general-utility chairs for socials and 
other gatherings. 

Where chairs are used without the common table, a 
small table for the use of the class president and the coun- 
selor is needed. 

5. How to make the most of present equipment. 
Some reader has been saying: 'These are ideal conditions, 
hut what about us who have not and cannot expect to have 
any such things? Is there nothing for us but to go on in 
the same old discouraging way with the same inconveni- 
ences?" 

Certainly there is a better way. But before trying to fix 
up our present limited quarters, made in a day before re- 
ligious education was seriously undertaken, it is well to 
get before our eyes the ideal toward which we are strug- 
gling. In truth, and to put it baldly, this tantalizing picture 
of the ideal has been held up to help us see just how inade- 
quate is our present equipment and how difficult is any 
thoroughgoing palliative. What is needed, let us say bluntly, 
is not to fix over the old but to build anew. Basements, 
disused corners, cubby-holes, and closets can never make 
ideal classrooms. Too many — alas! — are content to let 



110 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

things stand as they are, willing to make minor modifica- 
tions but opposed to such sweeping changes as are de- 
manded by the child life and youth of our churches. In 
a community of comparative prosperity it is little short of 
tragic to see the inadequate equipment provided by the 
adults of the church for their own boys and girls. If one 
wonders why these same youths leave the church just when, 
by all the facts of their developing natures, they ought to 
be most closely cemented to it, the answer may be found 
in considerable part just here. We are not willing to invest 
in young lives. 

But to make some constructive suggestions: First, the 
one-room type of church if located in a climate not too cold, 
may expand its building by utilizing Uncle Sam's idea of a 
hut. A hut designed after those found in the late canton- 
ments may be built by the members of the Intermediate- 
Senior Department at small cost, much of the material 
being obtained through solicitation. The assembly room 
and sufficient class rooms will thus be furnished. The 
building enterprise will furnish a wholesome outlet to 
youthful enthusiasm. It becomes a service activity, for the 
building will be used by others besides those who are 
building it. The work will develop church loyalty, for 
every concrete endeavor for the church will increase one's 
loyalty to the institution. Simplicity of design, modesty 
in decoration, arid comfort in equipment make these huts 
real additions to the rural church. They may become the 
center of community service and may develop community 
spirit. They may easily be transformed into centers 
for the social life of the church. If the latter is desired, 
adults will do well to cooperate to the extent of providing 
such necessary additions as a kitchen and the equipment 
with which to serve a considerable social gathering. This 
building, it goes without saying, should be located adjacent 
to the church. 

A second suggestion looks toward the utilization of the 
existing structure. Curtains and screens will easily divide 



OUTFITTING THE DEPARTMENT 111 

the cne-room church into a series of classrooms. To be 
sure, the curtains or the screens are not soundproof but 
they are eyeproof, and that is a great advantage. By re- 
ducing the "general exercises" of the school to about ten 
minutes' time will be allowed for each department to follow 
its own program behind the screens — if singing is omitted. 
As for class work the improvised classrooms serve fairly 
well. 

Certain additions in the form of "wings" may be made to 
the church structure, thus providing additional space. De- 
nominational boards will furnish drawings showing how 
such modifications may be brought about. 

We must constantly keep in mind that the whole move- 
ment toward departmental Sunday-school work is recent, 
that the machinery for carrying this into effect is only 
newly organized, and that last of all comes equipment for 
making effective our ideals and our best efforts. None 
needs to be discouraged over the present lack of accommo- 
dation; only he who remains satisfied with the present 
inadequacies is to be condemned. The divine discontent 
with what now is, coupled with a clear vision of what ought 
to be, is the sure guarantee of new and better things. Mak- 
ing the most of what now exists is the first step toward 
something better. A clear ideal as to what one needs is 
the next step. An unfailing faith that the Christian people 
will provide the better things as soon as they are con- 
vinced of their indispensability must bring the better 
things to actuality. 

Questions 

1. What should be the size of a room for an intermediate 
class of ten pupils? a senior class of twenty-five pupils? 

2. How should the equipment of an intermediate class- 
room differ from the equipment for a senior room? 

3. What department records should be kept? 

4. Should intermediates use full-sized chairs? Should 
seniors? 



112 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

5. Mention some works of art suitable for the Inter- 
mediate-Senior Department. 

Observation 

List your present equipment. Describe the room and 
furniture briefly. Compare what you have with the fore- 
going suggestions. Is there any way by which your present 
equipment can be improved? Look carefully over your 
entire church building and grounds to discover possibilities 
of improvement. Construct a fairly accurate picture of 
your needs, being conservative in your planning. Present 
the statement of "The Needs of the Intermediate-Senior 
Department of Our Church" at a meeting of the Sunday- 
school board or the workers' conference. 



CHAPTER XI 
CHARACTER THROUGH WORSHIP 

The lowest rungs in the intellectual ladder are our feel- 
ings. We are angry or pleased, we hate or love, long before 
our rationalizing processes are brought into play. The 
easiest way to direct action is to stimulate emotions. 
These constitute the dynamic of conduct. Emotions 
thought about, rationalized, and organized become senti- 
ments, now dominating conduct not in an irresponsible, 
chaotic fashion but as well-defined and powerful directive 
forces. 

To illustrate: The mother's care produces in every nor- 
mal child a response of love or affection, spasmodic, 
ephemeral, but instant upon the recognition of some benefit 
received by the child. With growing intelligence to dis- 
cover the constant watchfulness and service in the mother's 
life, this spontaneous and spasmodic outburst of love be- 
comes an abiding sentiment of affection and gratitude, gov- 
erning the relations between child and parent. Such senti- 
ment, acquired only toward maturity, is the compensation 
of motherhood. It is emotion mixed with intelligent per- 
ception of all that the mother's care has meant in sacrifice 
and service and a consequent knowledge of responsibility. 
With all this is commingled an idealism that makes "my 
mother the best woman in all the world." 

1. Cultivating religious emotions. It is a matter of 
surprise that the intelligent cultivation of the religious 
emotions should have received so little attention from 
Sunday-school workers in view of the fundamental place 
that the emotions hold in shaping conduct. True, the 
Sunday school has long attempted to play upon the emo- 
tions, these attempts ranging all the way from gushing over 

113 



114 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

the ''dear children" to the most lurid and gruesome stories 
used to "illustrate the lesson." As one Jewish mother who 
was sending her children to a Christian Sunday school 
questioned, "Why do they tell such awful stories to my 
children and send home such terrible pictures?" But in- 
telligently to consider what may be done to cultivate proper 
emotions regarding God and his work has remained for the 
present day. For the first time it is being asked, What 
emotions are being aroused by worship, by teaching, and 
by personal example? How far do the atmosphere and 
surroundings of the Sunday-school room or rooms stimulate 
wholesome, helpful emotional responses? And those ac- 
tivities, recreational and philanthropic, are being sought 
which shall not only "keep the young folk busy" but shall 
cultivate right emotional reactions. 

For all of life, the play life of the child quite as much 
as the Sunday-school life, is involved in stimulating the 
emotions. Every act, we are assured, has its emotional 
accompaniment. And, as it is acts and thoughts that 
specifically arouse emotions, one will have to go back to 
the acts and the thoughts of the pupils if he would culti- 
vate their emotional life. Right acts produce right emo- 
tions, but right emotions become the dynamic to produce 
right acts. This sounds like arguing in a circle; but, on 
the contrary, our very natures are so constituted that 
thought, feeling, and action are indissolubly linked together. 
To think a good thought gives rise to the incipient desire 
to put the thought in action, to feel the good thought to 
the doing of it. And, contrariwise, to do a good act en- 
hances the good feeling accompaniments. 

2. Religious worship as fellowship. Moreover, to get 
right relations established between persons the feelings 
must be cultivated. This cultivation comes about in the 
process of kindness and service that each shows to the 
other; but the end of real fellowship is not gained until 
there is established that camaraderie, that understanding 
■and mutual appreciation, which lie outside the reasoning 



CHARACTER THROUGH WORSHIP 115 

powers deep down in the affections. In every religion some 
understanding between the worshiper and his God or gods 
is sought, some fellowship established. In the Christian 
religion that fellowship is believed to be most intimate 
and personal — a fellowship so deep, so profound, that it 
colors all of life. Christian worship is the endeavor to 
create and express that fellowship, and its acts are the 
practices that help to create the emotion involved in it. 
Other acts help to create these emotions also, as acts of 
service and the daily life lived in accordance with the God 
ideals. But worship specifically sets itself the task of 
creating fellowship emotions. Where these emotions be- 
come sentiments governing the whole life they organize 
and direct the otherwise fitful chaotic emotional nature 
and thus help to shape the individual's character. 

What are these acts that thus create and express the 
emotional life of religion? It is interesting to note that 
they are strikingly alike the world over. They are prayer, 
praise, meditation, and reading; group ceremonies, com- 
posed of the items just mentioned and, at times, of sacri- 
fice or other religious customs; oratory and instruction; 
abstinence; and religious converse. Sometimes emphasis 
has been placed on one and at other times on another of 
these "religious exercises"; but all have received recog- 
nition at various times and in all religions. 

In prayer, from the crudest incantation of the savage to 
the most highly intellectual petition of the most cultivated, 
the end has been to put oneself in articulate touch with 
the Deity, to express one's deepest emotions and to declare 
one's loyalty and regard. Whatever the objective outcome 
of prayer, its greatest service is found in bringing the 
petitioner into conscious union with the desires and pur- 
poses of his God. "Not my will but thine be done" is the 
end of all prayer, a feeling of conscious fellowship with 
God to the end that his purposes may be fulfilled. 

In praise the' worshiper lifts his heart, his feelings, in 
joyful appreciation of the love and care shown by his God. 



116 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

The end of praise is to express the love and joy that well 
out of a heart conscious of its benefactions and of the pro- 
tections afforded it. 

Reading and meditation are intended to fix the mind 
on thoughts of the divine and of his purposes, plans, and 
goodness, to the end that the life may yield itself in loyal 
service to his will. On the one side is the desire for better 
understanding of the purposes of God — an intellectual 
process — ; but on the other is the purpose to surrender the 
life in joyous accord to that will as it becomes known. 
This, then, is also cultivation of the feelings. 

Group ceremonies tend to enhance the individual's emo- 
tions through the fellowship of the group. Group con- 
tagion intensifies that which the individual alone feels in 
less degree. One is caught in the feelings of the group and 
finds his own emotions greatly augmented thereby. 

By oratory the group is carried to new heights of feeling 
and of resolve, the emotions of the speaker being caught 
by the crowd and intensified by force of group contagion. 
Instruction is addressed primarily to the intellect, but 
the force depended on to put the truth taught into life is 
the awakened emotions of the audience. 

Abstinence is the endeavor to control emotions that tend 
away from the highest endeavor and, by centering the 
thought on self-abnegation, to enhance spiritual desires. 
The extremes to which this has been carried should not 
blind one to emotional enkindling, which such practices 
have wrought. In extreme forms abstinence has so weak- 
ened the physical organism that overwrought feelings have 
played queer pranks, creating illusions, visions, voices, and 
the like. In the saner form abstinence or temperance has 
become self-control, to the end that the emotional nature 
might function more rationally. 

Religious converse, or testimony, has served to stimulate 
such verbal expression as should in turn arouse the emo- 
tions and thus pledge the will to greater endeavor. It has 
tended to keep before the mind spiritual ideals and to 



CHARACTER THROUGH WORSHIP 11? 

warm these ideals over the fires of the heart's expressed 
desires. 

Now, let us be clear at one point. These practices have 
not grown up because man has said: "Go to! Let us culti- 
vate our religious feelings. Let us pray, that we may feel 
in touch with God. Let us praise, that we may feel joyful. 
Let us read and meditate, that we may yield ourselves in 
loyal service to Him. Let us sacrifice and follow other re- 
ligious customs, that we may increase our own religious 
feelings. Let us listen to the religious speaker, that our 
feelings may be aroused. Let us fast and give our testi- 
mony, that we may stir up our emotions." Quite the con- 
trary, these customs grew up every one out of some pressing 
need which each answered. We needed to ask God's help, 
and we prayed; our joy overflowed, and we praised. The 
processes came naturally as our religious natures expanded. 
But for the present we are looking to see how these acts 
of worship function and we shall find that their greatest 
contribution is in the realm of the emotions. They serve 
to build up, to fortify, and to conserve the emotional life 
as it expresses itself toward the objects of religious regard. 

One's perspective should also be clear. There is danger 
that religious emotions shall take the place of religious 
life, that they shall eventuate in a craving for more emo- 
tions and for the satisfactions that come from their own 
enjoyment. Religious emotions and their cultivation are 
never ends; they are the means to ends, the ends being 
Christian conduct. How we shall prevent such "short 
circuiting" of our emotional life we shall see presently. 
Now it is essential that we discover plainly that to leave 
the emotions uncultivated is to miss getting at the root of 
the religious life of youth. The feeling life of boys and 
girls must be enlisted if we would make religion dynamic 
in their lives. We must help establish those practices, both 
in their private lives and in their group living, which shall 
cultivate and train right religious emotions; for these are 
the years when the emotional nature is coming to its best, 



118 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

when for all after years the feelings are to determine what 
the life shall be. How, then, shall we go about it? 

3. Cultivating private devotions. The first task be- 
fore us is to help the boys and the girls in their own private 
lives to practice daily religious, devotion. This can be 
brought about most easily by assuming that every well- 
regulated Christian man or woman has such fixed habits; 
in other words, by making these practices the most natural 
thing in the world. Such assumptions come out quite in- 
cidentally in class discussion. Reference can be made to 
famous characters who have been known to acknowledge 
such practices as necessary to their religious living. Was 
it not Charles Dickens who said that every night since his 
childhood days he had repeated the prayer his mother 
taught him? Is it not known that Lincoln and Lee both 
resorted frequently to prayer? Examples can be multi- 
plied. 

A second essential — or is it the first? — is that the teacher 
should himself know and exhibit the results of such habits. 
It is useless to attempt to train the young in ways we know 
not of ourselves. Such daily strengthening of the teacher's 
own inner life will consciously manifest itself to the pupils. 
Not only will his own soul grow, but he will find that his 
class will become involved in his daily prayer and medita- 
tion, thereby augmenting his power in their lives. He will 
teach of God as one who knows him by personal contact 
and as a living Presence. 

But something more definite is needed even if it seem 
more mechanical if he would achieve the ends he desires. 
This is the time of life when rules and regulations loom 
large, especially if they be self-imposed rules. It will 
strengthen the purposes of the class jointly . to hit upon 
some plan of action that shall be supported by their mutual 
purpose and common experiences. If, after mature de- 
liberation and of their own volition, the class can determine 
upon a definite plan of daily Bible reading and of prayer, 
if themes for daily prayer can be agreed upon, it will give 



CHARACTER THROUGH WORSHIP 119 

this personal devotional life the push of a group enterprise 
and will fortify it with such definiteness and direction as 
shall more likely insure success. This plan can well be 
arranged so as to work in with the lessons; or the pocket 
Testament can be used, each member possessing a copy and 
reading and marking it under the direction of the class 
committee on devotions. Such a program requires that 
the teacher shall be a party to it. To make it effective he 
must submit himself to the rules. By so doing he will not 
only add his moral support to the enterprise but he will be 
guided in his thinking by the common reading of the class. 
From time to time he will find it convenient to make refer- 
ence to their daily devotions, utilizing the Biblical selec- 
tions in his class discussions. Some of the graded courses 
furnish daily readings of just this sort that may be utilized. 
It may surprise some that in these modern days ab- 
stinence should be recommended as a religious exercise for 
boys and girls. But it should be kept in mind that with the 
tremendous desire for bodily sensations of all kinds comes 
as a contrast the desire for self-mastery. Skill, which is 
nothing more than bodily and mental control, and "hard- 
ness" of the body are both sought. One of the best dis- 
ciplines, and one tending to emphasize the superiority of 
the spiritual over the merely physical, is found in self- 
imposed abstinence. This is best brought about and most 
efficacious when undertaken for a definite end rather than 
for its own sake. To arise early in order that one may find 
time to keep the class pledge of daily devotion, to go with- 
out candy or soft drinks in order that the class fund may 
be enlarged, to walk to school in order that the Christmas 
offering may be increased, to remain away from the movies 
in order that goods may be bought, and time may be had 
to sew for the children in the hospital, serve the present- 
day purposes of religious abstinence much better than ab- 
stinence for abstinence' sake of the Middle Ages. The 
results in self-discipline are the same, and the connection 
between self-sacrifice and service is made. 



120 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Closely allied to this are those processes of bodily harden- 
ing undertaken because the class has discovered that their 
bodies are their best tools, more intricate than any auto- 
mobile and more deserving of care and attention than any 
machine devised by man. This "temple of the Holy Spirit," 
this instrument to be used to further God's plans, can be 
made hardy, ready for any service, or left to become soft, 
indulged, and petted, and of little use to God or man. Ab- 
stinence for better service becomes the keynote of a deeply 
religious life and is not far removed from the practice of 
the training table and other athletic interests. This going 
without stimulants, such as tea and coffee, and, of course, 
narcotics, becomes deeply religious. Temperance becomes 
not an incident in the Sunday-school program but vitally 
grips youth at the most susceptible point — namely, in his 
desire for supremacy and service. 

4. Cultivating devotional spirit in the class. Thus 
far only the personal devotional life of the pupil has been 
considered. The efforts of the teacher have been directed 
to building up the habitual practice of prayer, Bible read- 
ing, and abstinence. The class, as a social group, needs also 
to be trained in their religious emotions. For, after all, 
the personal lives of its members will reflect the spirit that 
animates the group; and if the spirit of worship is not 
here cultivated, it is doubtful if any program of personal 
living can become effective. 

The devotional life of the class must be genuine. It must 
not be a superheated, emotional atmosphere imposed upon 
the class by a zealous teacher. It must voice the real life 
of the class, the real feelings that shall eventuate in real 
living. If there is prayer, it must voice real needs of those 
petitioning — better if phrased in the natural language of 
adolescence than if conventionalized in the terms of adult 
life. The exuberance of youth may jar upon the conven- 
tional thought of the undiscerning, but better the exuber- 
ance of youth and its crudities than the falsetto note of 
insincerity. What is desired is not "devotions" added to 



CHARACTER THROUGH WORSHIP 121 

the class teaching but the whole process of teaching, dis- 
cussion, questions, and prayers shot through with the. de- 
votional spirit. Perhaps that phrase needs to be clarified 
by saying that the "devotional spirit" is no more and no 
less than the consciousness of the presence of God in the 
life of the class. 

The class is small enough and on a footing of such in- 
timacy as to lend itself to a high degree of social-religious 
endeavor. Boys and girls are hesitant in declaring their 
inner religious convictions before others, especially before 
those of the opposite sex. A little later the young people's 
society will furnish adequate opportunity for such religious 
life; but during the intermediate-senior years the smaller 
group furnishes the social environment not too large yet 
sufficient for their needs. If the worship life of such a class 
would be encouraged, a place must be found furnishing 
some privacy. It is difficult to cultivate prayer life in a 
room in which every other class is talking; it is well-nigh 
impossible. It is also very hard to create a spirit of class 
consciousness and confidence that will permit of the in- 
timacies necessary for the deepening of the spiritual na- 
ture. For, after all, the devotional life of the class as well 
as of the department is dependent upon that intangible 
something that we call "atmosphere." Interruptions, a 
nervous, irritable, or unsympathetic teacher, or one devoid 
of the sense of order and system will "quench the Spirit" 
in the most hopeful group. 

Given an opportunity, what can the class do? It can cul- 
tivate the prayer life. Many of the intermediate lessons 
of the graded series have prayers appended. These can 
be made class prayers, joined in in concert or led by one of 
the members. Such printed prayers tend to widen the 
prayer vocabulary and to furnish the timid a starting point 
for later development. The skilled teacher, however, will 
not depend on such set prayers to furnish the needed ele- 
ment. Teaching to pray was one of the duties undertaken 
by the Master, and these learners want to know how to 



122 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

pray, though they may not be so bold as were the disciples. 
Sentence prayers form a good starting point for training in 
spontaneous audible praying., especially if these prayers come 
as the natural result of discussion or of need. When the 
class is alive as to what blessings it wants, it is not difficult 
to find one who will voice his wish. The teacher must set 
the example, praying simply and briefly, as he expects his 
pupils to pray. 

Whatever happens, the prayer life of the class must not 
degenerate into a formal affair. To prevent this the prayer 
season may come at the beginning, at the close, or, upon 
occasion, in the midst of the class period. The prayers may 
be printed, extemporary, or silent. It was a happy moment 
in the life of the teacher of high-school boys when he had 
led them along the way of class prayers to the point at 
which the petitions became the spontaneous outburst of 
real needs, couched in the everyday language of youth. 
The class was about to go for a camping trip, and one was 
sick. He was familiarly known as "Pop." Another, nick- 
named "Hop," was addressed by the teacher as follows: 
" 'Hop,' you lead us in prayer to-day. Don't forget 'Pop.' ' 
The petition was worded as follows: "Dear Lord, we are 
soon to go to our camp. 'Pop' is sick. Make him well, so 
he can go too. For Jesus' sake. Amen." That was real 
praying, and it was the result of cultivation. 

Such classes are the center of religious converse. We 
hear repeated regret at the loss of the class meeting and 
forget meanwhile that we have developed as many class 
meetings as we have well-taught Sunday-school classes. 
Here, where the conversation becomes an objective study 
of religious life, a most happy basis is found for just thai 
kind of personal religious discussion necessary to youthful 
growth. Instead of the stilted, highly introspective descrip- 
tions of inner states boys and girls are led to talk out their 
own problems as they discuss some religious character or 
center their attention upon some problem of Christian 
living. The teacher has that close personal oversight of 



CHARACTER THROUGH WORSHIP 123 

his class once sought by Wesley in his earlier gatherings. 
Discussion stimulates not only thinking but feeling and 
trains in the cultivation of right emotions. Sentiments 
are being created which will guide the youth in later life. 

It is thus that workers with youth must set out to stimu- 
late an emotional life that shall find satisfactions only in 
the worthy, the noble, and the good. In the daily life of 
pupils must be created acts that shall daily stimulate rever- 
ence for and love to God; in the class the social life and 
class discussion must yield not only knowledge but must 
arouse right feelings toward the Deity and toward our fel- 
low men. How the department as a whole may contribute 
to the same end will be the next inquiry. 

Questions 

1. What emotions should one expect worship to arouse? 

2. How does each of the following develop religious 
emotion? Prayer, praise, meditation, group ceremonies, 
oratory, abstinence. 

3. Is arousing the emotions the only end sought in wor- 
ship? 

4. How may private devotional life receive stimulus from 
the class? 

5. Is the practice of abstinence desirable in the young? 
Is it a means or an end? 

6. How may the devotional spirit of the class be im- 
proved? 

Observation 

Learn from your fellow workers what they are doing to 
promote private devotion among their pupils. Go over the 
names of the pupils in your own class, attempting to de- 
termine who do and who do not practice private devotion. 
Make frank but courteous inquiries of each pupil in order 
to correct your estimate. 



CHAPTER XII 
BUILDING PROGRAMS OP WORSHIP 

Having discovered how essential is the training of the 
emotions of the individual and of the class to true religious 
education, it is now necessary to turn to the department as 
a whole to see how its worship may function in this en- 
deavor. 

1. The value of departmental worship. Many Sunday 
schools maintain the archaic "opening and closing exer- 
cises" reminiscent of the days when grading was still un- 
thought of. First, the schools began to grade their pupils, 
putting them together by years of age as far as possible. 
Then a step was taken toward selecting materials for study 
which were graded to meet the needs of the various age 
groups. Hardly yet is it perceived that we need to grade 
worship quite as carefully if the results sought shall be 
realized. But it has become growingly obvious that prayers, 
songs, and other devotional acts that appeal to those of 
mature minds fail entirely to express the religious ex- 
perience of the younger element of the school. 

Even when the idea of graded worship has begun to 
take hold, a serious handicap is found in the type of archi- 
tecture of many Sunday schools. The one-room church 
seems positively to forbid any departmental life, especially 
such forms as call for music, concert recitation or prayer, 
or acts disturbing to other departments. Many village and 
even city churches are struggling with this problem, for 
let it be remembered that our forefathers built churches 
primarily for preaching purposes only, with never a thought 
as to the education of the young. Even where provision is 
made, our schools are still too often in the kindly but un- 
wise hands of those who can think of a school only in terms 

124 



BUILDING PROGRAMS OF WORSHIP 125 

of a group assembled for singing, prayer, announcements, 
and other forms of mass action. The superintendent of 
such a school does not see how he functions except as he 
acts as a "platform man," leading the devotions of the 
group. 

Great as are the obstacles, the day has arrived when some- 
thing different is needed if our boys and girls are to be 
trained in real devotion, in genuine worship. If cultivation 
in reverence, in the finer spiritual perceptions, is as im- 
portant as many believe; if we are losing something of the 
pristine sense of the presence of God in the lives of the 
young, as is frequently implied, then resort must be made 
at any cost to some remedy. We shall have to build for 
the young life of the church as generously as our fathers 
built for the adult life. We shall be compelled to shape 
our administrative policy so as to give place, time, and 
opportunity for graded worship. 

In the meantime some of the obstacles are not insur- 
mountable. A superintendent can be found who shall apply 
himself to the whole problem of religious education and 
who will discover a place for himself in the reorganized 
school. Unused parts of the present church structure can 
be brought into play. And where the one-room type pre- 
vails, the young people with some financial help can furnish 
themselves inexpensive quarters, not unattractive, on the 
unused portions of the church lot. As already suggested, 
these can be patterned after the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation huts used in the national cantonments, con- 
structed at a minimum of cost and with little technical 
skill. The interior, covered with beaver board, proves 
adequate and most inviting. During the warm season of 
the year all nature invites to the out of doors, where, group 
separated from group, each can carry on its own worship 
without interfering with the worship or study of other 
groups. 

2. Cooperation in worship. In the life of the depart- 
ments under consideration it is a first essential that wor- 



126 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

ship shall truly represent the experiences of the pupils. It 
must not be something done for them but something par- 
ticipated in by them. To this end the program should 
originate with a committee on worship chosen from and 
by the department. The superintendent of the department 
acts as an ex officio member of such as of all committees. 
This committee should arrange the programs for a month 
or more at a time, writing it out in detail, including hymns, 
responsive selections, offering, and story. It should be 
made responsible for choosing those who shall take any 
special part in the program. Many of the suggestions must 
come from the superintendent or from some of the teachers 
who are to act on the committee, but it will be discovered 
that the boys and girls are richer in their suggestions than 
one who has not utilized their help may have thought. 

The actual carrying out of the program, the conduct of 
the worship service, may be placed in the hands of the 
president or of one who may be chosen for that honor. It 
may seem impossible that boys or girls twelve to fourteen 
years of age are capable of presiding at a service of worship, 
that their youth and inexperience will destroy the very 
spirit of reverence that is sought. But experience has dis- 
covered that these pupils can be depended on to come up 
to their best; and if the service lacks finish it gains vitality. 
It becomes theirs in the largest sense of the word. If the 
social consciousness of the group has not yet developed far 
enough to warrant such procedure, the counselor will have 
to assume leadership temporarily until he can develop such 
group consciousness. But the end of worship in this de- 
partment is training in worship and the creation of the 
devotional life, not simply a "beautiful service"; because 
the members must be brought to take their own share of 
responsibility for its program and conduct. In all this, no 
matter how far experience has developed, the superin- 
tendent and teachers must be counselors, helping to shape 
ideals and ready ever to lift a helping hand. 

Where the intermediates and the seniors are thrown to- 



BUILDING PROGRAMS OF WORSHIP 127 

gether, the problem becomes much simpler; for here are 
found those from twelve to seventeen years of age from 
among whom certainly can be selected capable leaders. 
The danger now is that training in leadership will fall en- 
tirely to those older, while the younger and less experienced 
will be thought too immature to be utilized. Constant alert- 
ness will be necessary to discover those growing capabilities 
that can be put to the test. 

3. Contents of the program of -worship. The pro 
gram of worship, conducted either at the beginning 01 at 
the close of the school session, consists of the following 
items: praise, prayer, Scripture selection, story. The ar- 
rangement must vary from Sunday to Sunday, but the items 
mentioned occur in all such programs. Let us see what is 
included in each. 

(1) Hymns.- — Praise includes both vocal and instrumen- 
tal music. A piano may be used to lead the singing and to 
furnish the instrumental prelude. Hymns are to be sought 
that express the religious hopes, activities, fellowship, rever- 
ence, and joy of this group, and they should be found among 
the substantial and abiding treasures of Christian hym- 
nology. Boys and girls with perverted appetites prefer cake 
and pie to more substantial food, but their tastes should be 
trained to wholesome appetites. "Jazz" music is not made 
religious by the accompaniment of sentimental words. 
Good music, well sung, has been found to be more satisfy- 
ing to the young than cheap claptrap. The difficulty has 
been that the meaning of good hymns has not always been 
explained while the better music has been murdered in the 
hands of inexperienced leaders. If the Junior Department 
has done its work well, the pupils will come to this depart- 
ment with a fair equipment of good hymns learned and 
understood. This list should be enlarged during the inter- 
mediate-senior years. In any event, to appreciate the 
hymns time will be necessary to create interest by telling 
the story of some of them and in reading together and 
interpreting others. Selecting each month a good depart- 



128 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

ment hymn serves to hold that one in mind long enough to 
have it fasten itself upon the memory and work into the 
emotions. 

A list of hymns suitable to these pupils follows, all of 
which may be found in The Methodist Hymnal or in The 
Methodist Sunday School Hymnal. The list does not pre- 
tend to be complete but merely suggestive of types and 
qualities desired: "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" (both 
tunes); "Jesus Calls Us"; "0 Master, Let Me Walk With 
Thee"; "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"; "Holy Night"; 
"While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks"; "O Little Town 
of Bethlehem"; "There's a Song in the Air"; "Fairest Lord 
Jesus"; "O God, Our Help in Ages Past"; "Teach Me, My 
God and King"; "O Worship the King"; "A Mighty Fortress 
is Our God"; "O Zion, Haste"; "Hark, the Voice of Jesus 
Calling"; "Faith of Our Fathers"; "Tell It Out Among the 
Nations"; "O Jesus, Thou Art Standing"; "We March, We 
March, to Victory"; "Christ the Lord Is Risen To-day"; 
"How Firm a Foundation"; "O Jesus I Have Promised"; 
"Holy, Holy, Holy"; "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling"; 
"Lord, Speak to Me"; "Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee"; 
"Who Is Thy Neighbor? He Whom Thou" (tune "Saint 
Agnes"); "Come, Ye Thankful"; "There's a Wideness in 
God's Mercy"; "The Spacious Firmament on High." 

(2) Prayer. — All that has been said concerning encourag- 
ing prayer in the class session becomes an argument against 
prayer in the department sessions. Self-consciousness is 
too great, and the temptation to priggishness too severe 
to put this strain on the young. In consequence, much at- 
tention should be paid to cultivating the prayer life through 
the use of printed and memorized prayers. Such prayers 
may be found in books of prayers, 1 by selecting appropriate 
quotations from the Psalms, or they may be composed by 
members of the department or by the teachers. Such prac- 
tice in prayer writing is most beneficial and results in mak- 



1 Book of Common Prayer; Book of Prayer (Philadelphia); Manual for Train- 
ing in Worship, Hartshorne. 



BUILDING PROGRAMS OF WORSHIP 129 

ing the prayers themselves seem more the product of the 
mind of the group. 

Extemporary prayers, where used, — and they should be 
used at nearly every session — should be offered by the adult 
members of the department, voiced in simple, dignified lan- 
guage but presenting the real needs and feelings of the 
boys and girls. Too much study on the prayer life of these 
sessions cannot be given. 

(3) Scripture selections. — The committee should be en- 
couraged to find and choose the responsive Scripture se- 
lections. The Psalms, the Beatitudes, the Ten Command- 
ments, Paul's psalm of love (1 Cor. 13), and other similar 
selections are suggestive of the sort of material desired. 1 

The story may be nonbiblical, a Biblical tale retold, or a 
current anecdote used for its value to inspire right thinking 
and emotional appeal. It should include from time to time 
missionary, Christian autobiographical, hymnological, and 
heart-interest themes. The range should be wide and 
varied. Where possible definite outlet for the emotional 
interests should be established. For instance, if the story 
has been about the hospital ward for children, some con- 
crete service should be suggested and followed out by the 
department. Where missionary tales are involved, some 
missionary service should be devised. Where personal atti- 
tudes are to be established, opportunity for public decision 
may be given. It is poor practice to arouse an emotion and 
then let it languish with no objective, muscular satis- 
faction. 

(4) Order of worship. — Dr. Hugh Hartshorne suggests 
that all worship in the departments should be grouped 
around certain ideas, regard being had for the seasonal in- 
terests of the pupils. His outline of themes includes the 
following items: gratitude, good will, reverence, faith, and 
loyalty. This list is fairly comprehensive, furnishing a 
group of subjects that can be worked out in detail according 



1 Used by permission. From Manual for Training in Worship, by Hugh 
Hartshorne. Copyright, 1915, by Charles Scribner's Sons. 



130 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

to the judgment of the leader. Gratitude centers itself 
around the Thanksgiving season; good will finds its interest 
in Christmas; reverence furnishes the emotions a response 
to the good will of God toward us; faith rounds itself out 
in the Easter message, while loyalty discovers its nearer 
incentive in the national spirit of patriotism and, in its 
wider reaches, in loyalty to all mankind. Other themes 
may suggest themselves to the worker, such as courage, 
service, and thoughtfulness or knowledge. 

The following typifies an order of service that may be 
used on any occasion: 

Hymn (processionally sung if desired, and if a choir is 
part of the activities of the department). 

Psalm, unison or responsive, the department standing. 

The Lord's Prayer or David's prayer, or the department 
prayer. 

Hymn. 

Story. 

Leader's Prayer. 

Hymn (recessionally sung where possible). 

This order suggests that a choir is a valued addition to 
the department, such a choir being determined by the size 
of the department and the possession of a music leader to 
train it. While exceedingly desirable, the choir is not es- 
sential to worship at this age. 

The order of worship also suggests that certain prayers 
should be the possession of all members of the department 
as was indicated above. David's prayer, so called, is as 
follows : 

Create in me a right heart, O God, and take not thy holy 
spirit from me. Let the words of my mouth and the medita- 
tions of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, Lord, my 
strength and my Redeemer. Amen. 

A suggestive departmental prayer is found in these 

words: 

Our Father in heaven, and living in men's lives to-day, 
we thank thee for the good gifts that are ours, for health 
and strength, for friends and home, for our land and the 



BUILDING PROGRAMS OF WORSHIP 131 

knowledge and love that we have of thee. Day by day and 
week by week those gifts remind us of our obligation to 
share them with others and to make this world more as 
thou wouldst have it be. Grant that we may be true tp 
thee in thought, in word, and in act. Help us to understand 
that all that we can do for thee must be done through our 
fellow men. Help us to know thee better, that we may 
become as strong and as courageous as thou wouldst have 
us, and that we may more perfectly bring thy spirit and thy 
power into this world. Amen. 

Instrumental music is helpful in the devotional service 
if the pupils are made aware of the significance of the 
music, and if the pianist is skilled enough to make the 
music minister to the emotional life. Of course, the pipe 
organ is much more satisfying than the piano for devo- 
tional life; and in many of our schools the auditorium of 
the church is available for the worship service of this de- 
partment. Selections suggested by Professor Hartshorne 
are as follows: 

"Chorus of the Pilgrims" Wagner 

"Hallelujah Chorus" from "The Messiah". .Handel 

"Hero's March" . Mendelssohn 

"Intermezzo" from "Cavalleria Rusticana" 

Mascagni 

"Largo" , Handel 

"Largo" from "The New World Symphony" 

Dvorak 

"March and Chorus" Wagner 

"March of the Magi Kings" Dubois 

"Minuet" from "The Gothic Suite" Boelmann 

"March Militaire" Schubert 

"Pastoral Symphony" from "The Messiah". .Handel 

"Priests' March" from "Athalie" Mendelssohn 

"Traumerei and Romance" Schumann 

"Walter's Prize Song" from "Die Meistersinger" 

Wagner 

It need hardly be said that every service should have a 
unity running through it. Hymns, prayers, instrumental 
music, and story should link up together so closely that the 
result will be the production of strong emotions not of 
varied and conflicting types but of a single sort. Love, 



132 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

service, good will, faith, — these or other attitudes are being 
established and can only become powerful contributors to 
conduct in so far as the entire service drives to a single 
end. We shall pass now to the story itself and the part it 
plays in developing the emotions. 

Questions 

1. Give reasons for maintaining departmental worship. 

2. How may the lack of physical accommodations neces- 
sary to departmental worship be overcome? 

3. Who should conduct the worship service of the de- 
partment? 

4. Of what four parts should the program of worship 
consist? 

5. Name some of the best hymns for use with your pupils. 

6. Should one expect pupils to offer extempore prayer in 
departmental worship? 

7. Of what may the "story" consist? 

Observation 

If your Sunday school has a general period of worship, 
note (1) if the songs meet the needs of teen-age boys and 
girls; (2) if the prayer is such as to awaken reverence and 
interest; (3) if the superintendent's talk develops real 
thinking. 

If you have departmental worship make similar obser- 
vations. 



CHAPTER XIII 

STORY-TELLING 

While it is customary to think of story-telling as an 
accomplishment especially desirable for the teacher of chil- 
dren up to the junior age, it is novel to suggest that leaders 
of youth need to cultivate the art with equal diligence. Yet 
is it not true that at any age a story well told captures the 
imagination and arouses the emotions as does nothing else? 
To be sure, the type of story differs, but the age-long charm 
of the story-teller has not been broken, not even by the 
melodramatic screen, as is witnessed by the success of 
Scoutmasters, Camp Fire Guardians, and recreational 
leaders in many widely separated centers. Writes Mrs. 
Eggleston: 1 

Telling stories to the Young People's Division of the 
church school in class, in club, in Camp Fire and Scouts is 
a great challenge. To me it is one of the greatest needs in 
the church life to-day, for our churches are losing their 
young people in a startling way. Why? Because they have 
not been able to implant ideals that will tide them over the 
middle-adolescent years; because they have not made them 
see the vision of the service; because they have not put 
them at work. And what is the greatest power known in 
religious work for the implanting of ideals? A story. 
It is not that the young people do not love stories as well as 
they ever did. They will tease for a story much more than 
the little ones will if they know you have stories to tell 
them. The fault is with the teachers. We need teachers 
who will specialize so that they can get for themselves a 
fund of these great stories and use them year after year. 
We need teachers who will learn to tell stories so that they 
can fill the need. ' Be honest with yourself and search to 
see how many great stories you know for this age. Sup- 
pose someone asked you to go to Camp Devens and tell a 
group of stories to high-school boys who are there in the 

1 The Use of the Story in Religious Education, pages 80, 81. 

133 



134 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Officers' Reserve Training School. What story would you 
choose when every boy is a stranger to you? I studied long 
before I knew what to use there, for think of the possi- 
bilities of the stories you might tell! I built my group 
around "The Road of the Loving Heart" and I shall never 
forget the faces of the group before me. As we were leaving 
the hut, a little fellow came to thank me and lingered 
behind the rest. "Thanks for coming," he said. "I wish 
I could hear stories like that often. We boys need them." 
The greatest praise you will ever get is to have a teen-age 
boy or a girl say, "You have helped me." 

1. Story interests of adolescents. Story* and reading 
interests of this group are not far apart. A careful reading 
of the chapter "The Lure of Books" will guide one in the 
selection of good stories. In particular, however, one can 
indicate what sorts of stories make special appeal during 
these years. Let it be noted that the story demands swift 
movement, elision of the superfluous, and suspense to a 
degree quite beyond the printed page. The book that is to 
be laid aside to be picked up and continued later may 
move more slowly, may pass from one scene of suspense to 
another, with pause for breath between, and may be graced 
by the addition of description and narrative. On the other 
hand, the told story moves swiftly to its climax. As the 
great painting may be embellished by abundance of detail, 
so a novel may add all the minutise to obtain the desired 
effect. The story that is to be told is a miniature, small 
but perfect. 

The early adolescent enjoys "stories of chivalry, stories 
of self-sacrifice, romance, and heroism." Not the deeds of 
the hero make the chief appeal, but the motives that play 
so -large a part in heroic conduct. The story that portrays 
the actions of the hero so that one may see clearly what 
compelling motivation is at work, which arouses the emo- 
tional responses of liking the hero and wanting to be like 
him in inner rather than in outer conduct, is the one 
sought. Moreover, such stories must paint human conduct 
in such large lines that motivation cannot be mistaken. 



STORY-TELLING 135 

That is why the epics, the King Arthur tales, and similar 
stories are so desirable. They carry one back to a fashion 
of life so simplified as to leave no doubt as to the purposes 
animating the hero or heroine. 

When the high-school age is reached, "the social appeal" 
becomes very strong. One wants to know, not about the 
heroes of the past, in a day of different living, but the 
world of persons and things in their social relations. "Love 
begins to be an influence, and new ideals have to be formed. 
Stories of romantic love and of altruistic service have to 
be given." These stories are to be found in the longer tales 
of heroic endeavor, in missionary literature, in fiction, and 
in the current papers and magazines, so full of incidents of 
self-sacrifice, of altruistic love, and of service. Biography 
furnishes a full quota of desired tales. 

In these later years, as youth begins to think in terms of 
values, it is desirable to find such stories as shall portray 
the inner meaning of things. Heroic service tales, bio- 
graphy, and history all tend to this end. Says Mrs. Eg- 
gleston: 1 

I well remember telling "The Lost Word," by Van Dyke, 
to a crowd of boys about twenty. It is a wonderful story 
of the value of the word "Christ." The boys listened so well 
and sat for nearly an hour after the class, discussing the 
truth of the thought. Later one of the boys said to me, "I 
think that story must have been^yritten for me, for I have 
been so unhappy over the fact rnat I was losing my grip 
on the deeper side of life. I see now and I am so glad." 

2. How to tell stories to adolescents. Telling stories 
to adolescents involves the use of the same principles as 
does all other story-telling. It requires that one get into 
the spirit of the story — that is, really believe the story for 
himself and see what the mainspring of the story is. It 
requires, further, the complete mastery of the story 
until the tale becomes the vehicle through which 
one most easily expresses the truth. This requires careful 



Op. tit., page SO. 



136 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

preparation of both plot and wording, so that the story shall 
move smoothly on to its climax. The mind of the story- 
teller must not be diverted by the effort to recall the tale 
nor by the effort of choosing his vocabulary. The story 
must be seen so that it shall become vivid to the teller. He 
can only picture with words what he has himself seen and 
felt. There is a climax to every story, and this must 
become central in the building up of the tale. Toward this 
climax everything must tend, and from it the conclusion 
must naturally bring the listeners back to the plane of 
everyday experience. To attain these results the story 
should be analyzed, at first written out to make certain the 
picture and the wording. It then should be tried out, at 
first alone and then upon a small group. Practice makes 
perfect here as elsewhere. 

At one point, however, the story-teller for adolescents 
needs to remember, as the teller of tales to little children 
does not, that the personal equation enters into story- 
telling. One who would teach moral and religious values 
through the story must, if his listeners are adolescents, 
live the truth unfolded. And, moreover, he himself must 
be in such class comradeship that the tale not only leaves 
its impress but the added impress of his own sincerity and 
fellowship. Space does not permit the exhaustive study of 
these matters; hence, the reader who desires to perfect 
himself in the art of story-telling is referred to the follow- 
ing books for further aid: The Use of the Story in Religious 
Education, Eggleston; Stories and Story-Telling, St. John; 
How to Tell Stories to Children, Bryant; Some Great 
Stories and How to Tell Them, Wyche; The Art of the 
Story-Teller, Shedlock; Education oy Story-Telling, Cather. 

3. Uses of the story in these departments. The story 
has a threefold use in the Intermediate-Senior Department: 
first, in the worship program, as already indicated; sec- 
ondly, in class instruction; thirdly, in the social life of the 
group. 

In his Manual for Training in Worship Professor Hugh 



STORY-TELLING 137 

Hartshorne devotes more than ninety out of one hundred 
and fifty-four pages to stories. These are grouped around 
five central themes: gratitude, good will, faith, reverence, 
and loyalty. These stories — and they are included as types 
only with no pretence of exhaustiveness — form the nucleus 
about which the service is built up. The Moral Education 
League of England set out some years ago to teach morals 
through the story. Dr. Gould, its secretary, has gathered 
together the following books of moral stories: Children's 
Book of Moral Lessons (four volumes) ; Brave Citizens; 
Stories for Moral Instruction, 

What these men have found out is only the beginning of 
the large resources of the story for conveying right ideals 
and of inspiring right emotions. To make use of these 
stories, however, the leader of the teen-age group needs to 
know how to tell stories and whence to select his materials. 
The following list will be found of aid to the adolescent 
story-teller: Manual for Training in Worship, Hartshorne. 
(Stories for groups through the eighth grade. Some of 
these are good for the older years but they will have to be 
selected.) Education by Story-Telling. Cather. (Stories by 
grades through the eighth, listed by months. These, also, 
will have to be selected carefully.) The Use of the Story 
in Religious Education. Eggleston. From the last are se- 
lected "Some Adolescent Stories": 

"In the Land of the Blue Flower," Burnett. 

"Ruth" and "Esther" (the Bible). 

"Evangeline," Longfellow. 

"The Three Weavers" (from The Little Colonel at Board- 
ing School, Johnston). 

"The Road of the Loving Heart" (from The Little 
Colonel's House Party). 

"Mahala Joe" (from The Basket Woman. Austin). 

Stories from The Blue Flower and The Ruling Passion, 
Van Dyke. 

"How Much Land a Man Needs," Tolstoy. 

"The Two Pilgrims" (from In Pursuit 07' Happiness, Tol- 
stoy). 

"The Heart of the Rose," McKee. 



138 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

"The Selfish Giant" and "The Birthday of the Infanta," 
Wilde. 

"The King's Jewel" (from The Unknown Quantity). 

"Story-Tell Lib," Slosson. 

"The Toiling of Felix," Van Dyke. 

"Red Thread of Courage" (from How to Tell Stories to 
Children, Bryant). 

"The Perfect Tribute," Andrews. 

"Love Stories of Great Missionaries," Brain. 

"Tales of Missionary Heroism." 

Boole of Golden Deeds, Yonge. 

"In the Desert of Waiting" (from The Little Colonel in 
Arizona, Johnston). 

"The Hero of the Alley," Gulliver (from Everyland, 
June, 1912). 

"The Christ of the Andes" (American Peace Society). 

"The Closing Door," Bryant. 

"The Faithful Follower," Stewart. 

Paraoles From Nature, Gatty. 

"Joan of Arc." 

"Sir Galahad and Arthur." 

"David and Jonathan" (from The Throne of David, In- 
graham). 

Keeping Tryst, Johnston. 

"Bunga," Ferris (from Everyland, 1918). 

"The Great Stone Face," Hawthorne. 

"Golden Windows," Richards. 

"The Silver Crown," Richards. 

"The First Christmas Tree," Wallace. 

"Historic Boyhoods" and "Historic Girlhoods," Holland. 

Says Hartshorne: 

There is a large amount of story material which is not 
at present in usable form but is adapted in content and 
can readily be put in shape by those who have the time to 
spend upon it. In books by Oppenheim, Harold Begbie, 
Paul Leicester Ford, in Queecl. and V. TVs Eyes, and 
others of like character there are incidents of Christian 
deeds in different situations. Many stories can be culled 
from missionary biography and the stories of the bravery 
and the loyalty of foreign Christians. Examples of what 
certain foreigners have done — Steiner, Riis, Mary Antin — 
are helpful. (Inquire at libraries for materials for or by 
these persons.) Those in less fortunate circumstance need 
to have their imagination stimulated and fed with . . . 
talks and appreciation of nature, stories about other chil- 



STORY-TELLING 139 

dren, other peoples, other lands and places. Sympathy for 
others without distinction of class or privilege can be culti- 
vated through stories of how others live, their difficulties, 
misfortunes, pleasures, and heroisms. Cases of child labor, 
accounts of hospital work, fresh-air work, milk stations, 
private-school life (see Owen Johnson's books), the trials 
of the ''poor little rich children," are rich possibilities. 
Farm life, city life, suburban life, village life, camp life, 
sea life, firemen, miners, life savers, — all common everyday 
things — can be illuminated and transfigured by a glow of 
imagination and made over into the means of deepening the 
sympathies and appreciations of children. 1 

The second place in which the art of story-telling is of 
value is in the class hour. To be sure, the major part of 
instruction for this age is through discussion. But variety 
is essential here as elsewhere, and the teacher who knows 
how to introduce the lesson or how to pick it up and illus- 
trate it at some vital point by means of the story is always 
at an advantage. Xot infrequently the well-told story, the 
portrayal of the character under discussion, will be the 
means of stimulating interest and of interpreting the mo- 
tives involved as will nothing else. Not only will such a 
teacher be able to interest his class directly, but he will 
also be able to set before his pupils the example that shall 
enable them to become story-tellers too. From time to time 
they will be given opportunity to tell the story of the lesson 
either in their own class or in the class of some younger 
group, thereby enriching their own lives by the cultivation 
of a new talent. 

Last of all, the story enters into the recreational life of 
the department. On the hike, in camp, at the social even- 
ing, or around the blazing fire stories form no insignificant 
contribution to the enjoyment of the group. It is then 
that the wise teacher will long for just a story full of fun, 
of wit, or of caricature, of serious purpose concealed under 
the enjoyment of the tale, with which to delight and to 



1 Used by permission. From Hymnal for Training in Worship, by Hugh 
Hartshorne. CopjTight, 1915, by Charles Scribner's Sons. 



140 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

instruct. Fortunate the leader thus possessed of a stock 
of well-chosen stories and of the art that shall make them 
live in the imaginations of his listeners. 

Begin«at once to practice the art, using the stories already 
suggested and adding to them, from time to time, out of 
your own experience. Story-telling will prove one of your 
most valued accomplishments. 

Questions 

1. In what three ways can the intermediate-senior worker 
make use of the story? 

2. Name the types of story most enjoyed by the interme- 
diate; by the senior. 

3. What are some of the essentials in acquiring the art 
of story-telling. 

4. Name two or three well known stories for the ages 
under consideration. 

5. Where may one secure a list of good stories? 

Observation 

If possible get someone who has acquired the art to tell 
a story to the department. Note the choice of story, points 
of interest, method of unfolding, climax, and conclusion. If 
impossible to get a story-teller, try, after careful prepara- 
tion, telling a story yourself. This may be done in the class 
if the department does not afford the opportunity. 



CHAPTER XIV 
CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 

"Come, let us play with our children" is Froebel's well- 
known invitation. Ever since Froebel's time we have been 
discovering not only that education may be wrought out 
through play life, but that character, for good or for 
evil, is being wrought out in the play of youth. Mission- 
aries in Brazil have repeatedly found football and baseball 
"means of grace" in a land where organized play among 
boys is unknown. We shall have to turn our attention, 
then, to that large part of the pupil's lives which concerns 
itself with their recreations. 

1. Fun an end of recreation. The end of all recrea- 
tion in the mind of young people is fun — just fun. That 
is why it is so difficult for adults to comprehend this phase 
of adolescent life. It is so hard to see what purpose there 
is in roaming aimlessly through the woods, in gathering 
in a crowd to push and jostle each other, to throw each 
other down, to crawl through a window to explore an 
unused building, to sit beside a camp fire with no apparent 
end other than to sit there and watch the blaze, or to go 
strolling girl with girl friend and talk, and talk, and talk. 
Games and sports seem a little more tangible to the adult 
comprehension, but the giggles of a group of teen-age boys 
and girls at a "party" are quite beyond one. Wherein 
lies the fun of breaking electric-light globes, of stoning 
out the windows of an empty and secluded building, of 
cutting initials in every conceivable and inconceivable place, 
of stoning the members of another gang or the "dagoes" 
from "our hill"? There may be imagined surprise and the 
pleasure of nervous shock in the first or second giant fire- 
cracker; but what fun exists at the twenty-seventh explo- 

141 



142 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

sion directly under my window or in the "tick-tack" on my 
house? 

The leader must get the pupil's viewpoint. He must 
see that only a small portion of each day is his to use as he 
pleases; that noise may be a means of self-expression for 
the boy quite as truly as making money or singing at a 
concert or serving an afternoon tea in the home is for the 
adult. He further will have to discover that in youth the 
senses are tingling for satisfactions, for excitation; and 
that a noise or an odor, glaring lights and bizarre colors, 
are welcome stimulants, as welcome as the cessation of 
stimulations becomes to the overstimulated nerve ends of 
adults. He must understand the tremendous pull of the 
social consciousness that wants "somebody around if it is 
only the cat." Nature abhors a vacuum and Nature is 
never more insistent in her demands than just now. One 
must understand that humor has its evolution quite as 
truly as does reasoning. It is "terribly" funny to see 
grown-ups get fussy over the "tick-tack," to see them jump 
at the unexpected explosion, and to shock them with one's 
conduct. We may not agree that the adolescent viewpoint 
is the best or the one to be adopted for life; but we must 
see how it controls conduct at that precise age, and that our 
task is to build upon what is there. 

2. Recreational life to-day. Further, the leader of 
intermediates or seniors will find that the recreational life 
of the young is too important to be left alone. It is a part 
of life which, left to itself, may degenerate into positive 
immorality. Leisure time gives idle hands over to the devil. 
A study of how pupils of the upper grades and of high 
school spend their leisure will cause any thoughtful adult 
to wonder that so few young people go wrong. 

What are the present facts regarding the play habits of 
boys and girls in their teens? In the last few years several 
communities have published statistics of their own recrea- 
tional life. To read a dozen of these gives us a startlingly 
vivid picture of boy and girl life in America, whether in 



CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 143 

great cities or smaller industrial centers, university town or 
country village, on the coast or inland, North, South, West, 
or East; and it is true that: 

Less than half of the grade-school girls mention outdoor 
sports. (The boys mention more but altogether too few 
games.) There is little organization or effort in the active 
plays they do report. They consist of running, chasing, 
"fooling," while some speak of hopscotch, coasting, and 
skating in winter. The most striking thing about the girls 
is the large amount of time occupied by calling and talking 
with their girl friends. The average age of these girls is 
thirteen and fourteen. The boys of the same age spend 
much time "around the railroad yards, coal docks, and the 
like." They like to "hop trains," to run on the cars, to 
shoot craps, and to "swipe" goods. 

From careful observation of 33,122 children in fourteen 
different cities, varying in population from 22,000 to 500,000, 
the average of all boys and girls (observed during the after- 
school leisure time) gave 43 per cent doing nothing; and 
of the additional 33 per cent tabulated as walking, the 
majority of the girls were really idling. In a rural com- 
munity of 6,000 "especially significant is the fact that 168 
of the 262 idling boys and girls were idling in groups. 
Here is where mischief starts." 1 

As Jane Addams has so well put it: 

Never before in civilization have such numbers of young 
girls been suddenly released from the protection of the 
home and permitted to walk the streets and to work under 
alien roofs: for the first time they are being prized more 
for their labor power than for their innocence, their tender 
beauty, their ephemeral gaiety. Society cares more for the 
products they manufacture than for their immemorial 
ability to reaffirm the charm of existence. Never before 
have such numbers of boys earned money independently 
of the family life and felt themselves free to spend it as 
they choose in the midst of vice deliberately disguised as 
pleasure. 

The stupid experiment of organizing work and failing to 
organize play has, of course, brought about a fine revenge. 
The love of pleasure will not be denied; and when it has 
turned into all sorts of malignant and vicious appetites, 
then we, the middle aged, grow quite distracted and resort 
to all sorts of restrictive measures. We even try to dam 

1 Leadership of Girls' Activities, Moxcey, pages 16-17. 



144 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

up the sweet fountain itself because we are affrighted by 
these neglected streams; but almost worse than the restric- 
tive measures is our apparent belief that the city and the 
church have no obligation in the matter, an assumption 
upon which the modern city and the church turn over to 
commercialism practically all the provisions for public 
recreation. 1 

The Sunday-school worker has therefore no alternative 
but to throw himself into the recreational life of his pupils. 
He may ignore his responsibility; he cannot thereby dis- 
charge it. His may be the fine opportunity to direct the fun 
and amusements, the social gatherings, and the construc- 
tive and organized play so as to aid in developing social 
living and in shaping personal character; or he may neg- 
lect and so lose that vital touch with youth which makes 
the teacher or officer a friend and comrade, and his lessons 
real and penetrating. What, then, are the directions that 
should be followed toward helping youth at this vital 
point? What lines of recreational life shall one enter into, 
and how shall one organize the "fun" life of his class? 

3. Aims of the recreational program. The items of 
a recreational program should include one or more of the 
following ends: (1) body building and health; (2) skill 
and self-mastery; (3) knowledge; (4) social adjustment 
and comradeship. 

(1) Body building and health. — The growth of the body 
during these years calls for abundance of exercise to 
strengthen the rapidly expanding muscles, furnish the lungs 
with abundance of oxygen and the various parts of the 
organism with plenty of blood. Appetites under normal 
conditions of health are good, and exercise is one way 
nature has of promoting assimilation. Modern civilization 
demands an undue amount of sedentary living, at school, 
in the office and store, and at the machine in the factory. 
To correct the "slouch" and "stoop" that come so frequently 
during youth exercise is needed. Better exercise in the 



1 The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, Addams, pages 6-7. 



CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 14a 

open air than indoors: better exercise with some end in 
view than exercise for exercise' sake. Such body-building- 
and health-developing exercises are found in hikes, camp- 
ing, hunting, skating, skiing, horseback riding, bicycling, 
swimming, and the various athletic contests and games. 

It is astonishing how little is being done by the Sunday 
school to aid body building when one realizes how impera- 
tive such training is, how little equipment is necessary, 
how great the appreciation of our pupils, and how large 
the dividends in the lives of adults who cooperate with 
youth. About the last thing that a church needs is a gym- 
nasium; the first is enough interest and common sense to 
utilize the resources at hand. A hike requires the fore- 
sight of an adult leader in selecting a purpose, a route, 
and the provisions for what may happen on the way. The 
purpose may be to spend the day beside the river, to fish, or 
simply to stop to build the fire, cook some "hot dogs," play 
games, and to return home tired, hungry, and happy. It 
may include an excursion to a factory, a museum, a park, 
a historical scene, a children's ward in a hospital, an or- 
phanage, or some other place of interest. On a hike or 
excursion something more than body building is going on: 
Social living is there and its adjustments; and knowledge 
is being extended. In woodcraft skill is also being acquired. 
Boys and girls of these years like the fellowship of the 
"big brother" or the "big sister." No one who has lived 
in the open with youth for a day can fail to discover a 
new comradeship growing up between him and his class. 

(2) Skill and self-mastery. — With the consciousness of in- 
creasing powers youth wishes to become expert in their use. 
In handling his own body, in manipulating objects about 
him, and in adjusting himself to others he wants to know 
how to do things. "I'll bet you can't do so and so" is fol- 
lowed by "I can do it better than you can." Estimates of 
the worth of individuals are based on what they can do, 
especially on what they can do that shows physical strength. 
or skillful manipulation. 



146 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Tke Sccu: pre gram :: woodcraft is :: :::::;::: skill in 
handling oneself under natural conditions. A camera :la't 
is organized to promote skill in photography. Canoe build- 
ing :s :ke preliminary -C canoeing. bc:h demanding skill. 
one in construction, and the ::ke: in execution. Basketry 
yields a double product :: property and of skill. Games. 
sports, and similar adventures prove attractive and valuable 
outlets far :1m physical energies, develop mns:le and 
nerve coordination, and necessitate skill. Can yon not 
recall me thrill of y,;ur nrs: successful attempt :o swim en 
your back, to cut a figure 8 on your skates, to fly your 
nrs: kirn :: win your nrs: game :f :ennis? Wres:ling and 
boxing not :mly demand muscle but skill in a::ack and in 
defense, 

(3) Knowledge. — We have been : kinking almost entirely 
in terms of activity :: :ke muscular sort; i: is :ime :: 
recall that youth drtuauds als: knowledge, gained in oar: 
as an inciden: to acquiring skill and in the more muscular 
exertions, but gained als: through other means. Nature 
is alluring not alone for the opportunity to exercise our 
muscles but as a held for mental exploration. Ike nonets, 
tke trees, tke birds. :ke study :■: :ke heavens, fungi, and 
animals — indeed, every aspect :: nature — furnish tke needed 
"becks' for youths' advance. A pre gram of recreation 
must take account :f tke insisten: demand of tke young :: 
know as well as to do Not in stilted lessens but in the 
firsthand study :: nature under a competent guide is to 
be found the recreational outlet desired. 

If you s:ar: out t: nnd keratites. :r t: see whether a 
fern lives in a certain v-;:d. :r :: : 
ernes of fungi can be found within 
city limits, or to see how p:::ery is rm 

or where :-., cer:ain read leads ::. you t 
accomplisked and when to come k:me. : 

Reading is made doubly interesting 
the tale to others. And reading itself 



: n : 


t e m ne s 


o t : n ~ 


ae. 


: r :; e a v e 


r n a : s . 




wna: na 


s oeen 


.._ 


: h e retell 


■ „ __ ~ £ 


•ra 


y be stine 


u 1 a : e d 



Leadership of G. i Aid I 3 I : i 



CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 147 

and directed through the spirit of the group. Story-telling, 
arts and crafts, music and art, and dramatic presentation 
all come in for a part in the recreational program, each 
ministering not alone to skill and self-expression but to 
mental enlargement. Domestic science, studies in citizen- 
ship, trips abroad by stay-at-homes, discussion on and prac- 
tice in first aid, debates, all suggest the need to know in 
order to do, and to do well. 

(b) Social adjustment and comradeship. — But one should 
never forget that all this fun, this endeavor to build body 
and to acquire skill, to know in order that one may do, have 
vital connection with that consuming desire to live with 
one's fellows, to be a comrade, and to share in the social 
group. It is for this reason, this insistent demand for 
feeding the social nature, that many enterprises during 
these years must be cooperative to catch the interest of 
the young. One may study flowers, birds, butterflies, ants, 
books, alone; but one has much more relish for the under- 
taking when one's comrades are engaged in the same enter- 
prise. 

Organized play, whether it is the simple hike, the well- 
organized games such as tennis and baseball, the highly 
complex production of a pantomime or a drama, demands 
social cooperation, is, in fact, a school in social living. 
We learn how to live with our fellows not by being in con- 
tiguous relation to them but by living with them, sharing 
their tasks, their pleasures, their enterprises. It is the 
give-and-take of the games which teaches good sportsman- 
ship, sacrifice for the group, loyalty, as well as develops 
muscle and gains the exact and spontaneous cooperation of 
nerve, brain, and movement. Not to know how to take 
defeat is to pave the way for social revolution and bank- 
ruptcy. Not to know how to live together is the clear 
path to individualism and anarchy. 

4. How to begin. All thus far indicates the enormous 
value found in the recreation of the young and points out 
how the values are discovered in the different forms of play 



148 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

life. How shall the teacher set about his task as leader? 
Many who acknowledge the value of such programs hesitate 
to embark in the enterprise, feeling their own limitations 
in knowledge and in skill. The best way to begin is to 
begin. "Learn by doing" is a good pedagogical maxim, not 
less applicable here than elsewhere. Find out by observa- 
tion what the pupils are doing, what they like to do. 
Try the hike and get acquainted with the boys and girls. 
They can teach you, if you are an apt pupil, how to have 
a good time and what they think a good time is. A few 
suggestions will help, perhaps, but the chief thing is to 
get your "nerve up" and start in. 

(1) Plan things, so far as possible, before you undertake 
any recreation. — If a hike, know the road before taking the 
group over it. If visiting an institution, prepare the way 
by getting the cooperation as well as the permission of 
those in charge. If out just for a "nature ramble," fix a 
time of going, for lunch, and for returning. If a game is 
the objective, see that those responsible have balls, clubs, 
racquets, and other paraphernalia in readiness. If a party 
is the intention, plan program, games, "eats," etc., in ad- 
vance. 

(2) Keep things going after once begun. — Prevent idle 
moments, dull moments, when youth will feel the need 
of supplementing the day's fun by his own originality. 
These are the moments that things "get away" from one. 
Besides, the average group of intermediates is not ready 
spontaneously to fill in time. The seniors are but little 
better. 

(S) Be sure of the "eats" if there are to be any. — Youth- 
ful appetites are prodigious. 

(Jf) Do not try to do it all yourself. — Get a recreational 
committee in your class or department and work with it. 
It will be very helpful in suggestions and very willing 
to aid in the execution of your plans. 

(5) Make the class the unit of the larger part of the rec- 
reational life. — Next let the class function with other boys' 



CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 149 

classes, and the girls with other girls' classes, in a joint en- 
terprise. Least often, seldom in the intermediate years, plan 
departmental social affairs. Among the seniors the depart- 
mental forms of recreation become more frequent. It is not 
to keep the hoys and girls apart that these suggestions are 
made, for God made both male and female to dwell in fami- 
lies; but it is true that the boys have the best times during 
the earlier years when carrying on their recreations by 
themselves. And it is further true that too frequent ming- 
ling of the sexes in the senior years compels the cudgeling of 
brains to provide adequate fun that shall not degenerate 
into the highly questionable old-fashioned kissing games 
and similar enterprises of the days gone by (?). 

5. Questionable amusements, It remains to say a word 
about certain types of recreation frequently called in 
question by thoughtful workers. Commercialized amuse- 
ments are all under the suspicion of being conducted for 
the benefit of the pocketbook of their owners, and not for 
the welfare and morals of the young. The theater, the 
"movie" house, the dance hall, and the pool room all come 
under the head of commercialized amusements. "White 
cities," commercialized parks, beaches, and pleasure 
grounds should be added to the list. 

To condemn these amusements gets us nowhere. The 
young will not take our words for it; they will insist upon 
seeing for themselves and upon having an opportunity to 
judge for themselves. The safest program — safest, that is, 
for the young — is to fill the leisure hours so full of inter- 
ests that less wholesome activities will have little attrac- 
tion. This will not only monopolize their time but, if the 
recreation is what it should be, will help the pupils to 
form their judgment of what good fun is. 

The second step in the program is to interest them in 
those commercialized forms of recreation which are really 
worth while. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for 
its neglect. We shall have to see again with their eyes. 
Adventure is alluring. Broad humor of the Charlie 



150 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Chaplin type has its place in these years. But what we 
must do is positively to point out what is really worth 
while, to recommend good pictures, good places of commer- 
cialized sport, and to help the community to lift its recrea- 
tional standards above the vulgar and the immoral 
for all. Melodrama on stage or screen — those plays in 
which virtue receives its reward, and vice its immediate 
punishment — is far less harmful than is the drama in 
which religion, family life, honesty, sobriety, and virtue 
are held up to ridicule. For in the latter the very founda- 
tions of morality are shaken; in the former judgments 
already established are reenforced. 

The law in most States prevents our pupils from hanging 
about poolrooms, so that these are outside our discussion. 
The public dance hall, also, except among certain of our 
young people in the more congested parts of our large cities, 
is also closed or ignored, except possibly by a very small 
number of our seniors. Parties filled with active fun will 
most easily act as prophylactics against these iniquitous 
places. For the few, personal constructive advice must 
be given as to why moral risks are run in the atmosphere 
of the public dance. The whole of our effort must be 
directed toward the positive construction of healthy ideals 
of fun, of wholesome regard for one's own body, and of 
highest regard for the sanctity of those about us, boys 
or girls. This can be accomplished in small part by word 
of mouth; it must be wrought in large measure by enter- 
ing into and making wholesome the entire range of the 
pupil's play life. 

"The common problem — yours, mine, everyone's, — 
Is not to fancy what were fair in life 
Provided it could be, but, finding first 
What may be, then, find how to make it fair 
Up to our means: a very different thing." — Browning. 

6. A seasonal program of recreation. 

(1) Spring. — Outdoor activities: 

Baseball; though playing outdoors, use indoor baseball 



CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 151 

for girls, making the diamond smaller. Follow the regular 
rules of the game. 

Tennis. 

Bicycling, horseback riding, rowing. 

Hiking and excursioning: Flower hunts, bird-observation 
trips, and other nature trips advisable. A day's hike with- 
camp fire is delightful. Nature is urging young life into 
the open. 

Croquet. 

Archery. 

Volleyball. Play in the open, using a tennis net or rope 
if a regulation net is not available. 

Games: Three-deep, prisoner's base, run-sheep-run, dodge- 
ball, duck-on-a-rock, endball, captainball, punchball, basket- 
ball, Newcomb, hand tennis. 

Track events: potato race, tug-of-war, hurdles, relay 
races, fifty-yard dash, hundred-yard dash, three-leg race, 
wheel-barrow race, sack race, high jump, broad jump, run- 
ning broad jump, pole vault, elephant race. 

Indoor activities: 

"Feeds": With these can be combined by the ingenious 
teacher much lesson preparation. To make study a pleas- 
ure, the greatest fun in the world, is one of the objectives 
in these gatherings. 

Games: checkers, carroms, crokinole, authors, dominoes, 
etc. 

Story-telling (interesting to both girls and boys). 

Movement games: going-to-Jerusalem, spin the platter, 
flying cloud, ring-on-the-string, etc. 

"How-to-do-things" talks: how to make a good picture, 
how to make pottery, how to bind a book. etc. These talks 
should be the beginning of craftsmanship. Provision should 
be made to put the ideas into immediate practice. 

Parties of the whole department: Easter parties and 
Saint Patrick's Day parties. 

Use the indoor suggestions above as to movement games, 
adding charades, peanut hunt, guessing games, and the 
like. 

(2 ) Summer. — All the foregoing can be used. The hikes 
must have as their objective further knowledge of nature. 
They may be lengthened as daylight permits but not car- 
ried into the hours of night. 

Night in the woods: This one-night camp is easily pro- 
vided for, is inexpensive, and affords great delight. Better 
not extend the camp too long, as this endangers the limited 
food resources and the mental resourcefulness of the leader. 



152 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Camp: The vacation gives opportunity for camping, 
requiring careful preparation, considerable expense, and 
time. A wholesome location, plenty of food of the sort 
easily prepared, — unless a cook is along — pure water easily 
accessible, regulations and the enforcement of them by the 
leader, and a well-arranged and full-time program are the 
essentials. 

Department picnic: This should be undertaken after 
careful preparation. It should be held at a place giving 
opportunity for games, fishing, boating, and swimming if 
possible. The great thing is a well-prepared program. 
Keep the young people busy, and they will be happy. Good 
"eats" are necessary. Plan track events, running, jumping, 
and the like. 

(3) Fall and ivinter. — The nature of recreations in these 
seasons will depend somewhat on the geographical location. 
Fall weather is glorious for outdoor fun, hikes, one-night 
camps, and athletic sports. Nutting parties come in now 
with their annual appeal. 

Football is the all-consuming interest of boys. Tennis 
still holds a high place with girls. Outdoor volley ball 
can still be played with interest by either. 

Colder weather drives the young to indoor sports. Games 
will be needed. (See earlier list.) Adventure and romance 
enjoyed through the experience of the printed page can 
become a group enterprise if coupled with story-telling. 
Debating holds a high place in the minds of seniors. 

Handicraft for both boys and girls should be encour- 
aged and prosecuted as winter gives larger and larger 
opportunity for such indoor interests. 

Department parties come in for their chance. 

In the snow-and-ice country this is the time to encourage 
skating, skiing, and winter hiking in the woods. Nature 
is never more alluring to hardy souls than in her winter 
dress. 

Questions 

1. From the point of view of youth what is the chief end 
of recreation? 

2. How may recreation become a socializing agency? 

3. How is leisure time spent by the young of your com- 
munity? 

4. What four objectives should one have in building a 
recreational program? Illustrate how each may be attained. 



CHARACTER THROUGH RECREATION 153 

5. What five suggestions are made to those wishing to 
lead youth in their recreational life? 

6. What is to be done about commercialized types of rec- 
reation? 

Observation 

Plan a hike or outing with a group from these depart- 
ments. After it is over, list each step of the venture. 
Opposite each item give your estimate of its value and of 
their interest in it. Be sure to list the weak as well as 
the strong points. 



CHAPTER XV 

CHARACTER THROUGH SERVICE 

"Not what we give, but what we share ; 
For the gift without the giver is bare; 
Who gives himself with his gift feeds three — 
Himself, his hungry neighbor, and me." — Lowell. 

That the young should be trained in service is conceded 
by all; what is to be accomplished in such training is not 
equally clear to all. We want the boys and girls to learn 
to give time and money to various enterprises, to help 
the needy, to sew for the hospital children or to make 
scrapbooks for them, to aid in missionary projects, home 
and foreign, and to render willingly and cheerfully those 
innumerable services about the home, the school and 
church, and the community which are characteristic of the 
Christian spirit ; but do we see clearly what ends we have in 
view in all such effort? Can one think how these acts 
are to build into the character structure of the pupil? and, 
further, is it certain what services are to be asked and 
why these particular services should be asked just now? 

1. Awakening sympathy. The most obvious end sought 
in engaging pupils in service is to awaken and enlarge the 
sympathies. The self-centered life of the little child must 
become other-centered. Sympathy, or "feeling with," comes 
primarily by being put in the identical feeling situation. 
We pity those who suffer but we sympathize with those 
who are passing through the same afflictions we have ex- 
perienced. 

Now, our common experiences in life are so numerous 
that of necessity we develop a- deal of sympathy. We have 
all been burned, pounded our fingers, cut our hands, been 
ill, and had disappointments. Very early in life we de- 

154 



CHARACTER THROUGH SERVICE 155 

velop out of these common experiences a stock of common 
feeling. All, too, have been happy, met our surprises, dis- 
covered friends, experienced kindness and hate. 

Sympathies are increased, vicariously, through the im- 
agination. Never perfectly but approximately we perceive 
the sufferings of others and participate in their joys. Ob- 
viously such vicarious sympathy, sympathies generated 
through our ability to imagine others' experiences, are 
possible only as our own experiences give us a background 
to build upon, and our imaginations have developed to some 
considerable extent. Parents denied the blessing of chil- 
dren in their own homes can sense in some degree the 
loneliness of the home bereft of the little one. 

Vicarious sympathies can be quickened as we participate 
with others in their experiences. Sharing what we have 
with those who need, sharing our pleasures with others 
less fortunate, understanding the lives of those who are 
different, those who live in other countries or are of other 
races and of other social positions, is the best way of build- 
ing up mental pictures of these, our brothers and sisters, 
which shall enlarge our experiences and open our hearts. 
The narrow range of childhood's social contacts must be 
increased by personally engaging in enterprises with others 
different from ourselves and, secondly, by learning and 
sharing, even indirectly, the lives of those geographically 
far removed. The missionary enterprise is only a part 
of the scheme to build up this larger social apperception. 

2. Skill in service. A second end sought in familiariz- 
ing the young with plans of service is to train them to 
serve, to make them expert in the hows and the whys of 
the work. Efficiency is demanded here if our helpfulness 
is to be of the largest value. The sympathies of the young 
are easily excited; the experience of these same youths is 
too limited to guide them in ministering wisely to those 
whose lives they would help. To give a lame beggar a dime 
is the simplest way to satisfy the promptings of a sym- 
pathetic heart but not always, if ever, the wisest. There 



156 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

is an art in ministering to others which can be learned only 
by practice. With the practice must go increase in knowl- 
edge so as to lay a foundation for practice in sound theory. 

A program of service in our departments, then, must 
serve to acquaint the pupils with social conditions; must 
let them discover what is really helpful and what is only 
sentimentally satisfying to the one serving, and how, 
tactfully and wisely, to give the proffered aid. This will 
require analysis of social conditions, not abstractly but 
concretely, as the class comes in contact with want, misery, 
neglect, and community indifference. It means the edu- 
cation of our pupils in what Christianity demands socially 
of one who would follow the Master, who "went about 
doing good/' It means catching a vision of real democracy, 
with justice and equal rights for all, in community, State, 
nation, and the world. It means not reaching down to 
others but reaching out to enrich our lives and others 
through our common humanity and brotherhood. It means 
in its broadest aspects experience in the knowledge and 
technique of social living. 

3. Right habits of social living. A third end before 
the leader of youth as he plans the service activities of 
his department is to cultivate habits of social living. It is 
not enough to have sympathies. These may evaporate in 
sentimentality that ends in fine feelings, and nothing more. 
It is not sufficient that the youth knows how and when to 
render aid to the unfortunate. He may feej for and know 
how to live socially, yet remain paralyzed when demands 
come from all sides to serve his fellow men. He must be 
habituated to a life of self-denial and of service. His atti- 
tudes, through much practice of social living, must become 
fixed, his habit of throwing. himself into the social program 
of uplift must become permanent and unchanging. So 
these years are fraught with special significance as being 
the time above all others for establishing those constant, 
habitual ways of social thinking and action which, through- 
out the remainder of his life, shall compel him to let no 



CHARACTER THROUGH SERVICE 157 

voice of distress pass unheard, no ill adjustment of social 
relations remain sanctioned because established. This can 
come about only as he practices, not occasionally but con- 
stantly, the life of service. Abundant opportunities for 
putting himself into the lives of others must be presented, 
repeatedly plans for community betterment must compel 
his activity, daily and weekly he must make some life 
better by the effort that he puts forth. Only thus can he 
learn to function as a Christian, Christianizing all of life 
about him as the Master works through him. 

4. Essentials for a plan of service. In planning for 
service the department or class leader should bear in mind 
four things: The program of service should be a real expres- 
sion of the life and interests of the pupils; it should have 
a wide range of interests, that sympathies should broaden 
to meet the world's needs; it should recognize the seasonal 
interests of the young; and it should be continuous through- 
out the year. 

(1) Real and interesting service. — To make service ex- 
press the real life and interests of the young such activities 
must be selected as shall be within their comprehension and 
within their ability to administer personally. Giving to 
unknown heathen has little educative value, perhaps none; 
giving to a school or to a hospital in a mission field in 
which the pupils have become personally interested teaches 
service of a high type. Contributing to the associated 
charities of the city teaches little of service; helping a 
needy family in which the class has been interested through 
the same organization is teaching service directly. Bet- 
ter still is the opportunity actually to buy the shoes that 
the needy child shall be able to go to school — shoes that 
the society's agents shall place in the hands of the child. 
Giving to an orphanage lies nearer the level of the pupil's 
interest, but supporting one orphan is still more direct. 

It is well to have each give the result of his own work or 
thought. For instance, to raise corn or potatoes, to raise 
chickens and sell the eggs, to forego the pleasure of a 



158 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

"movie" or a soft drink in order that the money not thus 
spent may go to some worthy and well-known cause is far 
better than to pass over to the object money given directly 
by the parents. The former becomes one's own gift, one's 
own sharing. And sharing life with others is the end to be 
sought always. It is best, so far as possible, to have the 
pupils put themselves into their service. A crate of eggs 
for the children's ward of a hospital, simple garments made 
for the needy, picture post cards collected for the mission 
schools, and actual deeds of neighborliness are far better 
than money contributions; for into these enterprises the 
individual has thrown himself. To carry flowers to the 
sick, to sing at an old people's home, to visit an orphan- 
age and to play with the children, to carry in the wood 
for a needy neighbor, are deeds of service of the most 
intimate and personal type; therefore, of most vital 
moment. 

Nor should one forget that many forms of service for 
the church and the church school are quite as much 
service as these more benevolent and philanthropic deeds. 
The steps need repairing, a task within the powers of the 
department; the yard needs cleaning up; windows need 
new lights; the building frequently requires cleaning, the 
stove blacking, and the general untidiness and disrepute of 
the physical equipment need to be removed. The worst- 
looking property in many a rural and village community 
is the church. Why not purchase a beautiful picture for 
the class, for the department, or for the church? Cannot 
flowers be placed upon the pulpit each Sunday of the 
flowering season? Are any boys or girls unconnected with 
any Sunday school in the community? These are services 
easily within the ability of this department to perform, the 
doing of which not only helps others, thus building up a 
sense of social fellowship, but develops church loyalty in 
the pupils themselves. 

The community, likewise, comes in for its share of atten- 
tion. Clean-up week can be prompted and engaged in by the 



CHARACTER THROUGH SERVICE 159 

young; drinking fountains are all too rare; swat-the-fly 
campaigns can be entered into; keeping the garbage cans 
covered can be encouraged; and a study of the recrea- 
tional life of the young of the community may be under- 
taken. Why not invite some class from among foreign- 
speaking Sunday schools to be the guest of your class, thus 
building up a better understanding of the foreigner? Bet- 
ter yet, why not entertain such a class for an evening, thus 
getting "close up" to the foreigner's viewpoint? At Christ- 
mas the sale of Red Cross stamps can be undertaken, sur- 
veys of the city regarding church and Sunday-school attend- 
ance can be projected. 

(2) Wide range of social interests. — The second considera- 
tion is that the range of activities should be broad enough 
to develop an enlarging social conception. It is well to 
emphasize the immediate problems of the community and 
of the church; but young people need to see the bigness of 
mankind and the complex conditions under which they 
live. The study of the mountain conditions of the South, 
with its fine type of Anglo-Saxon manhood, set against the 
narrowing pressure of a restricted environment, will give a 
city youth an increased social outlook and should, if ade- 
quate opportunity of expression be furnished, enrich his 
sympathies. To know the foreign element of our cities is 
to gain wider knowledge of mankind, deeper insight into 
their problems. The Indians have their own social and 
religious life — a life much nearer the life of primitive 
man. It will surprise some boys and girls to learn of the 
fine family life among the despised "heathen"; for they 
will discover a spirit of filial obedience far different from 
the flippant and irresponsible spirit of American youth. 

What can be better than for a class to get into active cor- 
respondence with those who differ from themselves, to learn 
through such exchange of letters how the others live, what 
they lack that we have, and discover for themselves how 
to send real help to others? Whether this interchange 
is between the class in the city and the class in the country; 



160 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

between the white class in one school and the Mexican, 
Indian, or Negro class in another; between the class and 
the real Americans of an Indian Sunday school; or between 
the class and some new converts in a foreign country: 
such correspondence is certain to lead to visions of things 
to be done. Perhaps the class will be surprised to find that 
these others will want to do something in return, send 
Japanese pictures, pictures from the South or from the 
West, or otherwise to express their appreciation of what 
has been done for them. Such cooperative doing is the 
best method of realizing the true sense of brotherhood, such 
as the Master taught. 

(4) Seasonal interests. — The seasonal interests are to be 
kept in mind, as the seasons recall one to certain oppor- 
tunities for service. Christmas, of course, is by far the 
most-made-of of all. But Easter has its associations in our 
minds. Latin America makes much of Easter. Why not, 
then, plan to make Easter significant by sending an Easter 
greeting to some of our Mexican or South American 
cousins? And, now that we are embarked on a great 
European enterprise of missionary activity, we should not 
forget the prominent place that Easter holds for European 
peoples. But, to come nearer home, how many shut-ins 
are being remembered on this day? How many homes for 
the aged are being brightened by flowers and song? Are 
Easter eggs going from the class or department to some 
children's ward at the hospital? Could not the pupils of 
the teen years give an egg hunt for the school, especially 
making happy those in the lower grades? Participation in 
the Easter celebration of church and Sunday school is one 
service that can be rendered. 

The beginning of school means buying of books. Are 
there any needy families whose children are lacking at 
this time? The beginning of winter means more clothing 
and more fuel. Are the members of the department certain 
that no one suffers, especially the children and the aged 
who are helpless? Ask the charities association or the 



CHARACTER THROUGH SERVICE 161 

deaconess or the pastor; or, better yet, go through the 
community and learn for oneself. Perhaps the public-school 
superintendent can give some information that will help. 
Certainly the employers of large numbers of workmen 
can do so. 

Thanksgiving, also, is central in our thinking, with its 
baskets for the needy, clothing and fuel against the cold. 
Fourth of July reminds us of the responsibility we have for 
our fellow citizens. What of the fresh-air for those who 
live in narrow quarters? Can a day be spent in the woods, 
accompanied by these less-favored friends? Or would the 
lake or the seashore be better? Perhaps the department 
can send a deserving mother and her children to the coun- 
try for a fortnight. Ask the charity worker or the editor 
of the city newspaper. Perhaps if you are in the country 
you would like to take some of the "fresh-air children, " 
that they may have rest, food, and wholesome living for a 
week or two. 

(5) A continuous program. — The last requirement is that 
the program should embrace the whole year, should be con- 
tinuous. Too frequently service in our classes is a spasmodic 
affair. It becomes tremendously compelling around the 
Christmas season, then dies out for the remainder of the 
calendar. We forget that to make social living and feeling 
permanent they must be exercised constantly. It is so easy 
to "talk over the lesson," so hard to cudgel our brains to 
produce some definite plans for the service life of our 
classes. Difficult as such a program is, it must be entered 
into unless we wish our pupils to consider giving and doing 
for others as mere luxuries in spiritual living. The all- 
the-year-round program should have continuity combined 
with variety. It should so far as possible correlate itself 
with the lessons of the school; and it furnishes an excellent 
basis for some of the best recreational life of the class or 
department; for, after all, some of the best fun in all life 
is found in doing for others (see Chapter XIV). 

As merely suggestive the following schemes for the ac- 



162 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

tivities of intermediates and for seniors are inserted. It 
should be kept in mind that intermediates need to be fur- 
nished with simpler activities, those requiring less analysis 
of conditions and demanding the largest amount of muscu- 
lar execution. On the other hand, the seniors are ready to 
think more carefully and to plan more intelligently what 
they want to do, how they want to do these things, and 
what are the wisest ways of going about it to accomplish 
their purposes. Still, the ability to plan and execute per- 
fectly comes only in the later years; hence, the teachers 
and other officers will need to give most careful counsel 
and be ready to suggest lines of interest and means of 
accomplishment. 

5. A seasonal program of service activities for in- 
termediates. 

September. — Canvass for new members for department. 
Get ready for Rally Day. Look out for poor children who 
need schoolbooks. Perhaps some textbooks may be passed 
along. 

October. — Clean up about the church. Plant bulbs for 
spring blooming. Send off Christmas letters and cards for 
the foreign-mission field; a box for a mission school; let- 
ters. 

November. — Look up needy families. Plan Thanksgiving 
baskets. 

December. — Find and help a needy Sunday school or 
family, and care for their Christmas wants. Help in the 
sale of Red Cross stamps. Dress dolls for a hospital or a 
mission school. 

January. — Visit an old people's home to sing. Gather 
picture post cards tp send to a mission field. Missionaries 
can use unlimited quantities of these, especially cards show- 
ing how we live and what children do. 

February. — Celebrate Washington's and Lincoln's birth- 
days, entertaining visitors from among the foreign children. 

March. — Send Easter letters and cards to mission fields. 
It takes from one to two months to get these missives 
through, so begin early. Visit an orphanage. Find what 
the children need. Supply them. 

April. — Give an egg hunt. Color eggs for the children in 
a hospital or orphanage. Send a crate of eggs that have 
been given by pupils of department. 



CHARACTER THROUGH SERVICE 163 

May. — Clean up about the church for spring. Plan a 
swat-the-fly campaign and a general clean-up campaign for 
the community. Plant the church yard with flowers. 
Gather flowers for the church and for shut-ins. 

June. — Hold a field day for all Intermediate-Senior De- 
partments of the community. Get every boy and girl inter- 
ested. Present a picture to the department of school. Make 
this a regular event, and in a few years the church will 
contain some of the best in art. Gather flowers for the 
church, the sick, and for the city children. 

July. — Plan to help someone get to the country who 
needs a vacation; or help entertain those who are sent. 

August. — Help get up the annual church and Sunday- 
school picnic and field day. Make it a happy time for every 
boy and girl in the church. 

September. — Begin plans for the fall canvass, prepara- 
tory to Rally Day. 

6. A seasonal program of activities for seniors. 

September. — Plan the Rally Day program. Find ways and 
means to invite everyone of senior age not in Sunday 
school to be present. 

October. — Set out shrubbery or plant a tree in the church 
yard or on the parsonage lot. See that out-of-town high- 
school students are brought to Sunday school. 

November. — Pack a Thanksgiving box for home-mission- 
ary preacher. Remember the box Polyanna's family re- 
ceived, and don't make mistakes. Domestic-science girls 
can cook a good dinner for some needy family to feast upon 
on Thanksgiving. 

December. — Make candy and pop-corn balls for a Christ- 
mas tree for some needy Sunday school. Pack and carry 
Christmas baskets for the poor. Ask the charity society 
to name a deserving family. 

January. — Arrange a parents' banquet for the parents of 
the department. Plan the toasts as well as the supper. 
Let someone write a good song and set it to some popular 
air to sing at the banquet. 

February. — Give a pageant on Washington's or Lincoln's 
or Lee's birthday or upon all, representing the historical 
events connected with each. Take the money earned to 
help some boy or girl in his education in one of the home- 
mission schools. 

March. — Plan an early-morning Easter service for all 
seniors in the community. Get out the invitations, arrange 
for a good leader of music and a good speaker, and make it 



164 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

a great occasion. If desired, the service can be for all the 
upper grades of the Sunday school. 

April. — Look for flowers for the church and the sick. 
Spring calls for flowers, and shut-ins especially appreciate a 
bit of the outer world. Send off a box to some mission 
worker containing books, pictures, cards, and dolls dressed 
in American fashion. 

May. — Let the girls give a May Day celebration for all 
the girls of their ages in the community. Play the hos- 
tess, and play it well. Let the boys plan to have a drinking 
fountain for man and beast placed in the community. Plan 
to sell for some philanthropy, missionary or otherwise, 
vegetables or other crops in season. 

June. — Present a picture to the Sunday school. Join with 
the Intermediate Department, so that a really worth-while 
work of art may be obtained. 

July. — See that the community has some place for little 
fellows to play — a playground. Visit, if possible, the fresh- 
air camps and help the workers. Take one fellow on the 
camping trip who could not otherwise get away. Give 
him a good time. 

August. — Help with the Sunday-school picnic and field 
day. See that no one is left out, and that all have a good 
time. Look after the building of tables, serving of dinner, 
making of lemonade, and other small but important mat- 
ters. 

September. — Write to each absent member and tell him 
how glad you will be to see him back in Sunday school. 
Have a department banquet and throw yourself into the 
Rally Day program. 

Questions 

1. How far do each of the following furnish a basis for 
a program of service? Our common experiences, our im- 
aginations, our sharing with others. 

2. How may we acquaint our pupils with social condi- 
tions? Does the story play any part here? 

3. What is meant by "the habit of social living"? 

4. Why should the church plant and the Sunday school 
be objects of consideration in a service program? 

5. How may service become the expression of the real life 
and interests of the group? 

6. Can the programs broaden these interests? How? 



CHARACTER THROUGH SERVICE 165 

7. How may seasonal interests be incorporated into the 
service program? 

8. Why should service be continued throughout the year? 

Observation 

Learn what service activities the Intermediate-Senior De- 
partment of your church undertook during the last year. 
How far did the program fulfill the ideals presented above? 



CHAPTER XVI 
IN QUEST OF FRIENJDS 

It is hard to exaggerate the social hunger of the young. 
The call to comradeship, to inclusion in the warmth of 
fellowship, to discovery of friends, rings loud in the ears 
of youth. If social worship, recreation, and service had 
no other end than to lead to the formation of wholesome 
friendships, they would justify their existence and the 
expenditure of large amounts of time and energy on the 
part of the leaders of youth. For, after all, some of the 
most potent influences in the lives of the young, for good or 
for ill, are to be found in the sort of friends they make. 
Friends they must have. Shall mere propinquity determine 
the choice of those who shall become the embodiment of 
real and fancied virtues? Or has the Sunday school a duty 
to perform in making wholesome friendships easy, in de- 
termining the qualities sought in our ideal comrades, and 
in idealizing the relations thus established? 

1. Social risks in friendships. A father was discuss- 
ing the possibility of his removal to another community, 
due to business readjustments. "No," said he, "I cannot 
afford to go now. My children are reaching the years when 
their permanent friendships are to be made. They are 
now among acquaintances of just the sort that I should 
prefer to have them select their lifelong friends from. To 
move means for them to establish new acquaintances, per- 
haps better, but perhaps worse. I cannot afford to take 
the risk of exposing them to untried friends." This was 
a case of unusual penetration on the part of a parent, of 
unusual sacrifice for his children. 

In striking confirmation of this fact note this experience 
of Jane Addams: 

166 



IN QUEST OF FRIENDS 167 

One night at twelve o'clock I had occasion to go into a 
large public dance hall. As I was standing by a rail 
looking for the girl I had come to find, a young man 
approached me and quite simply asked me to introduce 
him to some "nice girl," saying that he did not know any- 
one there. On my replying that a public dance hall was 
not the best place to look for a nice girl he said: "But I 
don't know any other place where there is a chance to 
meet any kind of girl. I'm awfully lonesome since I came 
to Chicago." And then he added rather defiantly: "Some 
nice girls do come here! It's one of the best halls in 
town." He was voicing the bitter loneliness that many 
city men remember to have experienced during the first 
years after they had come to town. Occasionally the right 
sort of man and girl meet each other in these dance halls, 
and the romance that has such a tawdry beginning ends 
happily and respectably. But, unfortunately, mingled with 
respectable young men seeking to form acquaintance of 
young women through the only channel which is available 
to them are many young fellows of evil purpose, and among 
the girls who have left their lonely boarding houses or 
rigid homes for a "little fling" are likewise women who 
openly desire to make money from the young men whom 
they meet, and back of it all is the desire to profit by the 
sale of intoxicating and doctored drinks. 1 

"Bad companions" is set down as one of the chief causes 
of delinquency by Dr. Healy in his study of the criminal. 
If this is true, then one of the great tasks of the leader 
of youth is to help in the formation of right companion- 
ships. This considerable element in character building 
should not be left to chance. If any ways can be devised 
to predetermine the sort of friends one shall make, those 
ways should be made plain and used by anyone who would 
aid youth in his maturing processes. 

2. The need of many acquaintances. At first glance 
it is easy to believe that there are no laws in the world 
of friendship, that friends are made without rime or 
reason. But nothing is further from the truth. In the 
first place, one's friends must be picked from among one's 
acquaintances; we do not make friends from the unknown. 



1 The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. Addams. 



168 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Falling in love at first sight is far more frequent in books 
and magazines than in real life. And where such unex- 
pected attachments do occur they occur only between those 
who have the preliminary "first sight." It follows, there- 
fore, that the first step is to provide a goodly number of 
possible friends. This is, as one may easily see, not 
a negative but a positive process. Youth demands a wealth 
of possible experiences. Robbed of such enrichment, the 
boy or the girl seizes upon those nearest at hand, quite 
regardless of larger values, and proceeds to make boon 
companions. 

It is pitiful to find those whose possibilities of friend 
making have been limited by a narrow and restricted en- 
vironment. Such limitations may arise from geographical 
isolation; but quite as often they come, not because of 
scant population, but through some economic or personal 
restriction. How can wholesome social life be carried on 
in a tenement, from which the young must find their asso- 
ciates, not in the home but upon the streets? And how 
can the bashful, the timid, the inexperienced, find friends 
when no helping hand is by to aid? Undoubtedly there 
are others who also lack the friend they fain would have; 
but what opportunity is furnished, and what aid is given to 
bring these friendless ones together? 

And those who readily make friends — is it altogether 
true that their range of acquaintance is large enough to 
guide them in their choices? Perhaps the very ones who 
can be the greatest help live just beyond the margin of their 
daily associations. Segregation on economic or false social 
lines may have denied just those others whose differences 
are needed to supplement the lives of these. 

It may be argued that the public school, and especially 
the high school, furnishes our city boys and girls with suf- 
ficient opportunities for the formation of friends. This 
is only partially true; for to any who have watched, the 
associations of the school are seen to tend to drop at the 
school door. Those of a neighborhood are far more likely 



IN QUEST OF FRIENDS 169 

to discover each other's attractions even when separated 
from each other by different school alliances than are those 
whose days are passed under the discipline of common 
school experience. Gangs are not always made up from 
one school, nor are the cliques of girls all from one edu- 
cational group. After all, school has its tasks, more indi- 
vidualistic than social, and not especially tending to bring 
together, except under unusual circumstances, those geo- 
graphically separated. The larger the school, the less likely 
is it that a wide circle of possible friends will be formed. 

3. Opportunities for friendship making through 
the Sunday school. This is why the Sunday school has 
an unusual opportunity to render aid at this vital point in 
the development of the pupils. In the class and in the 
larger group making up the department, the spirit of 
worthy endeavor joins the entire group in some good 
employment or in some well-merited fun, in which each 
may discover the real worth of the other. In striving after 
success and the proper completion of a task or the happy 
competition of the game or the amusement, each stands 
forth in his own way, each shows his true sportsmanship 
or his spirit of cringing cowardice, each is apprized by his 
peers for just what he is. Immersed in the enterprise, each 
has lost his self-consciousness and is himself. And in such 
a situation discoveries are made — discoveries of persons 
whom one would add to his list of friends. 

Looking for a moment at the varied activities of this 
group, one discovers that in worship, where the loftiest 
sentiments are expressed, those who are gathered to wor- 
ship are mingled in a solidarity of emotion, tending to 
display the hidden, less public feelings and aspirations. 
These inner meanings, about which we do not talk in our 
youth even to our closest friends, are revealed for the 
time; and one finds that one here, another there, is ani- 
mated by the high resolve that possesses him. Hearts are 
bound together by the strong tie of a common emotion at 
its best. Participation in the worship brings with it fur- 



170 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

ther display of latent possibilities for common understand- 
ing and of common feeling. The social element in wor- 
ship has its place in this friendship-forming period. We 
are not yet aware how deeply others feel and think, and 
to find our fellows kindling under the same emotional 
touch makes us nearer in our bonds of fellow feeling. 

In carrying out the program of service we again find the 
young discovering each other under the lofty inspiration of 
a common but useful task. To take a basket together to 
some poor family, to search out some needy person with 
another as comrade in the service, to work together to give 
happiness to a group of aged men and women, not only 
gives the sense of cooperation; it discovers one's willing- 
ness to sacrifice and the skill which such endeavors require. 
For valued friendships grow out of friendly cooperation 
as in no other soil. 

But, because recreation and amusement form so large part 
of the life of youth, these fields furnish abundant means 
for the discovery of friends. The school that neglects to 
provide amj)le recreational life has not only failed to fur- 
nish a needed element to growing boys and girls but has 
also limited its opportunity in friendship making; for rec- 
reation and fun the young will have, and would as soon 
have them under the wise guidance of the church as to 
seek them in unwholesome surroundings. The outings, 
hikes, camp fires, picnics, marshmallow roasts, and the 
like furnish not alone opportunities for individual charac- 
ter development; they are the ground of real social sol- 
idarity. 

4. The need for ideals of friendship. Thus far has 
been indicated the need of abundance of friendship-making 
opportunities and the necessity of a purposeful program in 
all attempts to get the young together. Other things enter 
into a practical program for the guidance of friendships 
among the young. Ideals of what constitute a good friend 
must be gained. Friendships do not grow out of abstract 
ideals, but they must stand the test of our ideals. Right 



IN QUEST OF FRIENDS 171 

ideals of what true friends are are gained in two ways: first, 
through lesson material, and, secondly, through associa- 
tion with an ideal friend. The teacher or the leader has 
here his greatest opportunity. 

How vividly it all comes back to the writer — that class 
of six boys just at the age when, more than any lesson 
material, more than any sermon or advice, they needed a 
friend! They were not bad boys — indeed, they had the 
background of home experience and life to make them 
unusually good boys. But, like a ship without rudder, they 
were drifting in their moral and religious lives for want 
of a friend to guide. One after another the teachers came, 
and one after another they departed, glad to be rid of the 
task of teaching "those boys." Sometimes the word "aw- 
ful" indicated better the teachers' feelings. 

Then came the day when a true friend was found. He 
was strong, well-knit, athletic, and forceful, a leader in 
whatever group he might be found. And how he did love 
those boys! And how they learned to love him! For two 
years or more his thoughts were theirs, his standards 
theirs, his friendship their model. Here was friendship in 
the concrete, and no unworthy friendship. It was a tie 
that made sacrifice and service pleasant. In his home, on 
the hike, in the camp, in the gymnasium, he lived with 
and for these boys. They idolized him. He was their hero, 
their guide in all that was worth while. Friendship meant 
for them the kind of friendship that he had for them and 
the kind they felt for him. In all their after life it is to be 
doubted if they can ever get away from the standards of 
friendship then established. 

5. Friendship in three directions. For one must 
ever remember that friendship in the teen years reaches 
out in three directions. In one direction it seeks friends 
among those of its own years and sex; in another direction 
it seeks friends of those of or about its own age and the 
opposite sex, this tendency increasing during adolescence; 
in the third direction the friendship-making sense reaches 



172 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

out for someone of older years and of either sex who shall 
help interpret life to the inexperienced. 

Now, it has been conceded by all workers with the young 
that one of the best protectors of youth, one of the best 
shapers of youth's morals and ideals, is to be found in the 
friendship established between those of immature years and 
those who are matured. This is the secret of the "Big 
Brother" movement for the reclamation of youthful offen- 
ders. If so much can be done for those whose lives have 
become misshapen through bad environment and bad com- 
panionships, what may not be accomplished through, the 
fruitful friendship that may exist between teacher and pu- 
pils? For, as one has already written, what we give our 
pupils is just ourselves. If in that giving we furnish in our- 
selves the warm appreciation and sympathy so much craved, 
the strength of character and initiative desired, we have 
helped to standardize the thinking of our pupils and have 
thus enabled them the better to judge of all those friend- 
ships which propinquity may create. 

In an abstract way the lesson materials of the graded 
courses for intermediates and seniors furnish also certain 
guiding principles as they help create right ideals of con- 
duct and of social relations. How this is done will be 
revealed as we discuss the lesson material suitable for 
those years. It is essential here to note that all such 
abstract and more or less bookish idealization must find 
exemplification and reality in the lives of those whom the 
young know best — the parents and the teachers and the 
leaders of the department. 

6. Summary. These, then, are the directions that may 
be followed by any who would render service to the young 
in their friendship-making attempts. With fair accuracy 
one may predict that, given an abundance of really admir- 
able persons from among whom youth may choose their 
friends, the tendency will be to seek those who supply their 
own greatest needs; that in the absence of a sufficient 
number the choice must invariably fall upon those less 



IN QUEST OF FRIENDS 173 

worthy; that, directed by right ideals, learned from the 
lives of tbe great and more especially concreted in the 
lives of parents or leaders, friendships are unconsciously 
tested, and those found wanting relegated to the place of 
acquaintanceship or neglect, while those more desirable are 
cemented by common interests; and that friendships are 
best discovered and best developed through the agency of 
common tasks, common amusements, and common achieve- 
ments. These departments should then become veritable 
schools of friendship both as to ideals and as to practice. 

Questions 

1. How do chums and gangs indicate a hunger for friend- 
ship? 

2. How does timidity limit the possibility of friendship? 

3. Why is a large range of acquaintances from which to 
make friends desirable? 

4. Does the high-school student or the pupil who has 
gone to work have the better chance to make desirable 
friends? Give reasons for your answers. 

5. What departmental activities help to create right ideals 
and possibilities of friendship? 

Observation 

1. What evidences have you that the young are hungry 
for friends? If you have no data at hand, watch them and 
secure such data. 

2. In your own youth how did the following help in your 
choice of friends? Your home and parents; your high 
school; your church and Sunday school; your business life; 
your neighborhood. 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE LURE OF BOOKS 

For the last quarter of a century a well-defined reading 
craze, extending from about twelve to sixteen years of age, 
has been recognized. So far as our American boys and 
girls are concerned, one may expect to find these years 
not only filled with deeds or with self-manufactured dreams 
but enriched by much and varied reading. Even the com- 
ing of the "movie" has not done away with the lure of the 
printed page, as is witnessed both by the reports of public 
libraries and by the book market in general. 

This manifestation of interest in books is only a part of 
the new life that seeks to find solutions for everything in 
the lives of others, real or fictitious; and in the craving, 
now become a passion, to live — even, if need be, vicariously 
— the fullest, most fascinating, most heroic, and most 
thrilling of existences. The realities of life becoming 
meager and humdrum, resort is made to the world of 
fiction to supplement and color the monotony of everyday 
experience. And the craving to know how and to know 
what seeks satisfaction in such books as shall tell how to do 
and how to know. What has been sought from others 
older and more experienced is now discovered for oneself, 
condensed and made usable, on the printed page. 

1. The chance to read. Children differ greatly in the 
manifestation of this passion. Access to reading tends to 
awaken as well as to stimulate reading. Those who live in 
a home where books abound, and in which books are a 
part of family life, are in general more apt to take to 
reading and to much reading. The public library, with its 
rich suggestiveness of possible regions yet unexplored and 
its sympathetic guide in the person of the children's libra- 
rian, induces early and extensive familiarity with books. 

174 



THE LURE OF BOOKS 175 

On the other hand, the absence of books does not preclude 
the rise and development of this interest; and where books 
are denied or are few in number, the thirst is quenched 
surreptitiously or is partially assuaged by repeated reading 
of the few and often ill-assorted store of books at hand. No 
one familiar with the poverty in reading matter of many 
a country or city home can fail to be struck with the zeal 
with which the newspapers, the almanacs, the few books 
and magazines, are read and reread by youthful members 
of the family. How much greater would be the reading 
range and how much more advantageous the reading hours 
were there an abundance of good literature, no one can 
tell! 

2. Kinds of reading for intermediates and seniors. 
If one would seek to know the kinds of reading sought by 
those of the years herein considered one has only to make 
some searching investigation among the pupils of one's 
own department. One such investigator has found that 
"95 per cent of the boys prefer adventure," and that "75 
per cent of the girls prefer love stories." Another found 
that fiction interest is at its highest for both boys and 
girls at eleven, while "at thirteen the record for travel and 
adventure stands highest — in the case of boys phenomenally 
so." "There is a gradual rise in history with age," says the 
same writer, "and a corresponding decline in fiction." 
"Boys read twice as much history and travel as girls and 
only about two thirds as much poetry and stories," says 
another investigator. Still another found from the records 
of a public library that at about sixteen a change took 
place in both sexes, 

showing then the beginning of a greater interest in works 
of more general character (than juvenile stories). Girls 
read more fiction than boys at every age, but the interest 
in it begins to be very decided at adolescence. 1 

The order in which appeal is made to the young likely 
stands about as follows: stories and longer fiction, travel 

1 See Adolescence, Hall, Volume II, pages 474-SO, and footnotes. 



176 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

and adventure, how-to-do books, books about various forms 
of animate and inanimate objects, history, biography. Both 
history and biography for the younger pupils must be 
dressed in semifictional form. In fact, history as dry fact 
never exists for the young; and the sooner historians dis- 
cover this, the more will the rising generation know of the 
great movements and persons that have transformed human 
life. Even science is- more palatable and more digestible 
for being written in the form of lively narrative. The 
great debt of the present generation is to those under- 
standing writers for youth who have made facts more 
interesting than fiction and fiction tame beside the marvels 
of nature's facts. 

In truth, one needs to recognize how wide is the area 
covered by so-called books for the young, and how eagerly 
youths seek between the covers of books to learn what life, 
human, animal, and vegetable, is like. One needs to know how 
large is the manufacture and the circulation of tales of ad- 
venture, of travel and of romance, read largely by those 
under twenty. Until this is accomplished, the leader of 
youth is apt to underestimate the power of the printed page 
in directing the thinking and the feelings and, hence, the 
conduct of our boys and girls, 

3. The history of juvenile reading. If the history of 
the guidance of youth in his reading could be written, 
applying particularly to our American youth, it would be 
filled with pathos, tragedy, and humor. For many years, 
so strong was the Puritanical tradition upon us, books of 
stories were denied the young altogether, notwithstanding 
the fact that children learn most rapidly through the story. 
Dickens, Scott, and even such innocent diversions as Robin- 
son Crusoe were under the ban. Children's books were of 
the most sedate and theological type, with a strong tendency 
toward religious sentimentalism. Passing from these 
earlier restrictions, one enters upon a period of limited 
license when books were scanned most carefully lest un- 
wholesome or even immoral tendencies should be found in 



THE LURE OF BOOKS 177 

the narrative. Under such extreme caution grew up the 
Sunday-school books of other days, noteworthy chiefly for 
their inane heroes and their dull plots. If ever humanity 
suffered, it was at the hands of the well-intentioned writers 
who poured forth such drivel upon an innocent youth. 

It is not surprising to find that, contemporaneous with 
these puerile effusions, grew up and circulated, surrepti- 
tiously, the paper novel, the "nickul libury" of Irvin 
Cobb's fine appreciation of the ''dime novel," read outside 
the pale of family knowledge and sanction. These more 
virile stories had at least the merit of speedy plots, heroic 
notwithstanding melodramatic characters and constant 
movement. They served to fill the life of youth with the 
glamour and the daring sought more often in fiction than in 
actual life. While here and there a weak boy or girl, more 
susceptible to suggestion than the average, was led astray, 
it is doubtful if in many cases these "thrillers" served any 
other purpose than timefillers and mystery satisfiers. 

4. Guidance needed to-day. Then followed the ac- 
knowledged day of stories for boys and girls and the encour- 
agement to read, read widely, read all. To-day we are in 
greater danger from the multitude of books and the lack of 
mental guidance than ever before. Just as the books, good, 
bad, and indifferent, have multiplied, in like proportion 
have parents and leaders of youth felt relieved of any 
responsibility for the reading life of the young. In the 
library and in the home, in books, magazines, and news- 
papers, the young have exposed to their gaze the good and 
the bad, the lofty and the vile, that which is intended for 
the eyes of the young and that which is written for the 
special guidance of those of mature years. If, left to 
themselves, our pupils stumble upon the unworthy, cheap, 
and tawdry, the salacious, and that which is theirs in later 
years but beyond their true appreciation and evaluation in 
youth, we have none to blame but ourselves. For never 
before have suitable books been so abundant and so inex- 
pensive. Never before has the public tried more seriously 



178 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

to provide this reading-crazed age with really good and 
interesting books. In every field and for every occasion 
there is a book if the boy or the girl did but know. 

All this goes to prove that one thing needed in the world 
of books, as in the world of friends, is to have a large 
number of possible worthy selections within easy reach. 
For children who live in the cities this provision has been 
well made through the public library. But for many of our 
boys and girls such depositories of good reading do not 
exist. It is unfortunately out of fashion to talk much 
about Sunday-school libraries, especially those attempting 
to meet the needs of all pupils. And it is too true that 
such ventures have in the past suffered from parsimony 
and false judgment of books, rendering them almost 
useless. Notwithstanding, unless the community, through 
its public school or its library association or its own 
generous contribution to maintain a public library, does 
something for the young, the Sunday school has a duty 
to see that books are provided. A pastor and his super- 
intendent can do nothing to direct the reading life of the 
young more adequately than to start a library, however 
humble, which from time to time can be augmented, the 
books to be circulated week by week, thus enlarging the 
outlook of the most isolated parish. Only one who has had 
occasion to lend his own personal collection to hungry 
youth in the country knows how great is the appetite and 
how ravenous the desire to read a good book. Even a class 
can buy two or three books each year and pass these about. 
There is always a way for those who have the will. 

5. Developing taste. But providing books is not 
enough, just as providing possible friends is not sufficient. 
One cannot predetermine tastes in reading but one can 
cultivate tastes here as w T ell as in food. It is not sufficient 
to have good books stored away in the stock room of the 
city library. It is necessary that discoveries be aided by 
those who have traveled that way before. Hence it is that 
the teacher of intermediates and of seniors has a peculiar 



THE LURE OF BOOKS 179 

privilege and duty in introducing his pupils to worthy 
friends among the books. This should be done in no aca- 
demic fashion if results are desired. One must learn the al- 
ready established interests and tastes. Upon the awakened 
interests he must proceed to awaken further interests, and 
upon the basis of acquired tastes he must encourage new and 
different tastes. For life is moving on, displacing the 
tastes of to-day by the newly acquired appetites of to- 
morrow. 

To tell a good story and then to show how one can for 
himself find out more about the hero or the heroes, to 
begin a tale of adventure and then to leave the pages turned, 
so that the curious may rind out "what comes next," to 
discuss photography, stamp collecting, carpentry, cooking, 
basketry, radio-telegraphy, or radio-telephony, and then 
hand to the inquiring mind the volume that shall make 
more plain what has been told, is one way of stimulating 
interest and training taste. 

Substitution is another method. Here one finds that 
stories of a certain type, say historical romance, have 
secured their hold, but that the stories themselves are far 
from perfect in form and structure. Not discouragement 
but substitution is needed. For Henty substitute Scott. 
For the "nickul libury" sustitute Stevenson's Treasure 
Island and Captain Kidd. For romantic tales of adventure 
substitute real tales of travel — Stanley's Darkest Africa, 
Hansen's Farthest North, Du Chaillu's Land of the Mid- 
night Sun. Roosevelt's River of Douot. If one must have 
romanticism and love, let it be in the best form and freed 
from any salacious suggestion; and love tales we must all 
have in our youth and in great abundance. If adventure 
and travel form our chief craving, let us have authentic 
books of adventure, full of the realities of life. 

6. Sets of books for boys and girls. One type of 
books that has been passed by in silence is found in those 
series for boys and for girls known by various names, such 
as the "Rover Books," the "Scout Books," the "Pioneers," 



180 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

and the like. These in large part are harmless in content, 
fairly rapid in movement, and simple in diction. Their 
interest, since the days of Horatio Alger and Oliver Optic 
down to the present time, has been determined by the ease 
in reading, their cheapness as to cost, and their depiction 
of graphic scenes that pass easily from one to the other 
without much pause or connection. The universal con- 
demnation into which such literature has fallen is due not 
to any particular evil active or latent in the stories but 
to their inane and altogether characterless narrative. At 
best they are stop-gaps in the reading life of the young. 
Why not stop these gaps with something really worth one's 
time? At best they are to be tolerated only in the hope that 
they will awaken the reading interest to a point where 
something really good will be demanded. Their greatest 
evil is that they sometimes so completely fill the time and 
thought that more serious and valuable reading is alto- 
gether left out. 

7. Lists of books. Some of the good books that have 
proved their worth <by long experience or by the careful 
judgment of those in a position to know what is worth 
while are found below. Here we pass from theory to fact. 

Stories 

Alcott, Louise May: Little Women; An Old-Fashioned 
Girl; Under the Lilacs; Eight Cousins; Little Men. 

Barbour, R. H. : For the Honor of the School; Captain of 
the Crew; The Halfback. 

Bennett, John: Master Skylark. 

Blackmore, R. D.: Lorna Doone. 

Bosher, Kate Langley: Mary Cary; His Friend. 

Brooks, E. S.: Master of the Strong Heart. 

Burnett, Mrs. F. H.: Little Lord Fauntleroy; The Secret 
Garden; Sarah Crewe. 

Clemens, S. L. : Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Adventures 
of Huckleberry Finn; The Prince and the Pauper; Personal 
Recollections of Joan of Arc; Innocents Abroad. 

Coffin, C. C. : Winning His Way. 

Cooper, J. F. : The Deerslayer; The Last of the Mohicans; 
The Pathfinder; The Pioneers; The Prairie; The Spy. 



THE LURE OF BOOKS 181 

Craddock, C. E.: The Prophet of the Great Smoky Moun- 
tains. 

Crane, Stephen: The Red Badge of Courage. 

Defoe, Daniel: Robinson Crusoe. 

Deland, Margaret: Old Chester Tales; Dr. Lavendar's 
People. 

Dickens, Charles: David Copperfleld; A Christmas Carol; 
A Tale of Two Cities ; Dombey and Son. 

Duncan, Norman: Dr. Luke of the Labrador; Adventures 
of Billy Topsail & Co. 

Eggleston, E.: The Hoosier Schoolboy; The Hoosier 
Schoolmaster. 

Eliot, George: Silas Marner. 

Fox, John: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come; The 
Trail of the Lonesome Pine. 

Garland, Hamlin: The Long Trail; A Son of the Border. 

Grey, Zane: The Young Pitcher. 

Grenfell, W. T. : Tales of the Labrador; Adrift on an Ice 
Pan. 

Hale, E. E.: The Man Without a Country; In His Name. 

Harris, Joel Chandler: Uncle Remus. 

Hawthorne, N. : The Scarlet Letter ; Ticice-T old Tales. 

Jackson, Helen Hunt: Ramona ; Nelly's Silver Mine. 

Johnstone, Mary: To Have and to Hold. 

Kipling, Rudyard: Captains Courageous; Kim. 

Kingsley, Charles: Westward Ho! 

LaRamee, L. De: A Dog of Flanders; The N umber g 
Stove. 

London, Jack: The Call of the Wild. 

Montgomery, L. M. : Anne of Green Gables; Anne of Avon- 
lea. 

Munroe, Kirk: Flamingo Feather. 

Ollivant, Alfred: Bob. Son of Battle. 

Page, T. N.: Red Rock. 

Porter, Jane: Scottish Chiefs. 

Porter, Gene Stratton: Freckles; A Girl of the Limber- 
lost; Michael O'Halloran; The Harvester. 

Pyle, Howard: Men of Iron; The Story of Jack Ballis- 
ter's Fortune. 

Rice, Alice Hegan: Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch; 
Lovey Mary ; Sandy. 

Scott, Sir Walter: Ivanhoe; Kenihvorth; Quentin Dur- 
ward; The Talisman. 

Smith, F. H.: Caleb West; Master Diver; The Fortunes 
of Oliver Horn; Peter ; Tom Grogan. 

Slosson, Annie Trumbull: Story-Tell Lib; Fishin' Jimmy. 



182 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

Stevenson, R. L.: Kidnapped; David Balfour; The Mas- 
ter of Ballantrae ; Treasure Island. 

Stockton, Francis R. : Rudder Grange. 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher: Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

Tarkington, Booth: The Gentleman From Indiana. 

Thompson, D. P.: The Green Mountain Boys. 

Van Dyke, Henry: The Blue Flower. 

Vaile, Mrs. C. M.: The Orcutt Girls; Sue Orcutt. 

Verne, J.: Around the World in Eighty Days; Tiventy 
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. 

Wallace, Lou: Ben-Hur. 

Watson, John: Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush. 

Webster, Jean: Daddy Long Legs. 

White, S. E. : Blazed Trail; River Man. 

Wiggins, Mrs. Kate D.: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm; 
Holly Oliver's Problem; The Birds' Christmas Carol; A 
Summer in a Canon. 

Wister, Owen: The Virginian. 

Wright, Harold B.: The Shepherd of the Hills. 

Zollonger, G. : Widoio O'Callaghan's Boys. 

BlOGKAPHY 

Antin, Mary: The Promised Land. 

Bacon, E. M.: The % Boy's Drake. 

Baldwin, James: American Book of Golden Deeds. 

Brooks, E. S. : The True Story of George Washington. 

Custer, Mrs. E. B.: Boots and Saddle (life of Custer).. 

Franklin, B.: Autobiography. 

Golding, Vautier: The Story of 'Henry M. Stanley ; Martin 
of Mansfield. 

Hill, F. T. : On the Trail of Grant and Lee. 

Jones, F. A.: Thomas Edison. 

Keller, Helen: The Story of My Life. 

Mathews, Basil: Paul, the Dauntless. 

Moffett, Cleveland: Careers of Danger and Daring. 

Morgan, James: Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy and the 
Man. 

Moses, Belle: Louisa M. Alcott. 

Muir, J.: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. 

Nicolay, Helen: The Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln. 

Palmer, G. H.: The Life of Alice Freeman Palmer. 

Paton, John T.: The Missionary to the New Hebrides. 

Riis, Jacob: The Making of an American. 

Roosevelt, T.: Letters to His Children. 

Washington, B.: Up From Slavery; The Life of Freder- 
ick Douglass. 



THE LURE OF BOOKS 183 

Wheeler, H. F. B.: The Boy's Life of Lord Kitchener. 
Yonge, C. M.: Book of Golden Deeds. 

Travel axd Adventure 

Chaillu, Paul du: The Land of the Midnight Sun. 
Dana, R. H.: Two Years Before the Mast. 
Franck: Vagabond Journeys Afoot. 
Kephart, H. : Castaways and Crusoes. 
Roosevelt, T. : African Game Trails. 
Stanley, H.: Through Darkest Africa. 
Williams, Archibald: The Romance of Modern Explora- 
tion. 

Nature Lore 

Earth and Sky Every Child Should Know, Julia E» 
Rogers. 

Trees, Stars, and Birds, Mosley. 

How to Know the Wild Flowers, Dana. 

Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden, Mathews. 

How to Know the Ferns, Dana. 

How to Know the Mosses, Dunham. 

How to Know the Trees, H. Irving. 

Birds Every Child Should Know, Vlanchan. 

Behind the Sce?ies With Wild Animals, Velvin. 

Secrets of the Woods, W. J. Long. 

Moths and Butterflies, Dickerson. 

Insect Stories, V. L. Kellogg. 

How to Know the Stars, W. W. Rupert. 

Half Hours With the Loioer Animals, C. F. Holder. 

Minerals and How to Study Them, Dana. 

Handicraft 

Basket Weaving ("How to Do It" series). 

The Priscilla Basketry Book, Fitzgerald. 

How to Do Beadwork, White. 

Artistic and Decorative Stenciling, Audsley. 

Elementary Woodwork, Kilbon, 

Woodcarving for Young People, Leland. 

Box Furniture, Louise Brigham. 

The Potter's Craft, C. F. Binns. 

Practical Compendium of Pen Lettering and Designing 
(Newtown Automatic Shading Pen Co.). 

The Craft of Handmade Rugs, Amy Mali Hicks. 

Elementary Bookmaking and Bookbinding, Sarah G. 
Freeman. 

First Book of Photography, C. H. Claudy. 



184 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

Practical Cinematography, and Its Application, P. A. Tal- 
bot. 

Boat Building and Boating, D. C. Beard. 

Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties, D. C. Beard. 

Wireless Man, P. A. Collins. 

Airman, P. A. Collins. 

Harper's Aircraft Book, A. H. Verrill. 

Book of Wireless, P. A. Collins. 

Appreciation Books 

How to Understand Music, W. Mathews. 
Stories From the Operas, Davidson. 
Stories of Hymns and Tunes, Brown-Butterworth. 
A Child's Guide to Pictures, C. H. Chaffin. 
How to Produce Amateur Plays, Barrett-Clark. 
Plays of the Pioneers, MacKaye. 

General Books 

Manuals of the Scouts (both Boy and Girl), Camp Fire 
Girls, and Girl Pioneers will be found of great aid. Also 

Woodcraft Manual for Girls; Handbook for Girl Scouts, 
€tc. 

Questions 

1. What kind of books besides fiction do pupils of these 
departments like? 

2. Why should many good books be accessible to the 
young? 

3. How may interest in a book be created? 

4. What harm is there in innocent but cheap reading? 

5. Name five good stories and five books not fiction 
which you could recommend to a fourteen-year-old boy; to 
a fourteen-year-old girl. 

Observation 

Get five or six boys each to give you a list of ten books 
that they especially like. This will enlarge your knowledge 
of the reading interests of your pupils and will furnish 
you an excellent opportunity to talk over the reading inter- 
ests with the young. 



PART III 
INSTRUCTING THE INTERMEDIATE-SENIOR 



CHAPTER XVIII 

LESSON MATERIALS FOR INTERMEDIATES 

1, How lesson material is chosen. The choice of les- 
son material for any department is no longer the result 
of arbitrary decree but the product of careful investiga- 
tion of the capacities and the interests of the pupils, and of 
the end sought by the teacher. Whatever the end sought, 
the material must meet the requirements of fitting the in- 
tellectual development and satisfying the interests of those 
taught. The end will determine whether the matter fall 
within the realm of nature study, mathematics, history, 
science, religion, or what not. 

The end in the present case is obviously the moral and 
religious growth of the pupils. This determines somewhat 
the content of the course of study. What shall be selected 
to gain that end — whether history, geography, mythology, 
science, art, or fictional stories — will depend on how far 
each may enter into the pupil's interests and draw out his 
awakening sense of religious life and worth. Inasmuch as 
the English Bible, both in content and in phraseology, is 
the sourcebook of our Anglo-Saxon religious experience, it 
is a foregone conclusion that within its covers one shall 
find much that is best fitted to aid the adolescent in under- 
standing his own religious nature and in helping him find 
his place in a world that should be thoroughly Christian. 

2. The graded lessons for intermediates. The present 
International Graded Lessons are the result of just such 
painstaking study of the life and needs of these pupils, and 
the content and method of presentation of the lessons are 
built upon sound and tried principles of religious teaching. 
A glance at the accompanying chart will furnish a rapid 
survey of the attempt to meet the needs of each age. 

187 



188 



LEADERS OP YOUTH 



ORGANIZATION CHART 


AGE 


COURSE 


TITLES OF COURSES 


Departmental Groups 


School 
Grtdet 


PUdI 


Plan 2 


4 

5 


BEGIN- 
NERS 


The Little Child and the Heavenly Father 
(A Two Year Course for children of Kindergarten age.) 


BEGIN- 
NERS 


BEGIN- 
NERS 


KINDER- 
GARTEN 

E 
L 

E G 
M R 
E A 
N D 
T E 
A S 
R 
Y 

H 

G 

H 

S 

c 

H 


L 

C 

L 
L 
E 
G 


6 


I 


Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home-Year i 


PR!- 
MARY 


PRI- 
MARY 


7 


n 


Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home- Year 2 


8 


in 


Bible Stories for the Sunday School and Home-Year 3 


9 


IV 


Stories from the Olden Time ( * ndudu, £f{5SS 1 ) Suxnmer 


JUNIOR 


JUNIOR 


10 
IX 


V 


Hero Stories (including Special Summer Material) 


VI 


Kingdom Stories (including Special Summer Material) 


12 


vn 


Gospel Stories (including Special Summer Material) 


INTER- 
MEDIATE 


13 


vin 


Leaders Of Israel (including Special Summer Material) 


INTER- 
MEDIATE 


14 


IX 


Christian Leaders (including Special Summer Material) 


15 


X 


The Life Of Christ (including Special Summer Material) 


SENIOR 


16 


XI 


Christian Living (including Special Summer Material) 


17 
18 


xn 


The World a Field for Christian Service 


SENIOR 


xin 


The History and Literature of the Hebrew People 


YOUNG 
PEOPLE 

TO 

24 
YEARS 


19 

20 


XIV 


The History of New Testament Times 


XV 


The Bible and Social Living 




Special Courses for Parents and Elective Courses 
on Special Topics 


ADULT 


THE COURSES BEGIN WITH OCTOBER 



NOTE 

Plan 1 : When the Graded Lessons were first issued the 
yearly courses were grouped to correspond to this well-known 
classification of pupils, and the text books were marked in 
accordance with this plan. 

Plan 2 : The departmental grouping by a series of three 
years to a department corresponds to the school grading where 
Junior High Schools have been organized and is now recom- 
mended by many denominations. Where Sunday schools are 
organized by this plan care must be taken to select the Graded 
Course by age and titles, as indicated in the left column, 
rather than by department names. 

Copyright, 1918, by N. S. Barnes. 



LESSON MATERIALS FOR INTERMEDIATES 189 

Such a chart assumes, of course, that pupils are graded — 
that is, that all those of approximately the same age and, 
therefore, of relatively the same ability and capacities are 
in the same classes. Such grouping is for the apparent 
reason that it is much easier to hold attention and to gain 
interest if one's group is of about the same ability. One 
outstanding difficulty in the Intermediate-Senior Depart- 
ment is that pupils of a wide range of age, because of social 
cohesion, gather into one class, making teaching well-nigh 
impossible. The fault in such a case lies not with the les- 
sons, nor yet with the teacher, but with the stubborn fact 
of ill assortment of pupils. How to remedy such difficulties 
has been considered in Chapter IX. 

Children who have passed up through the earlier grades 
come to the Intermediate Department with a certain stock 
of knowledge and with certain ideals fairly well fixed. 
They have, as will be seen from the chart, heard Bible 
and nature stories. In £he junior grade just preceding 
this they have been studying the stories of the days of the 
patriarchs and of the heroes of Israel. They are also 
fairly well versed in the chief stories of the New Testa- 
ment, especially of the Hero of heroes and of his fol- 
lowers. Memory work has laid up in their minds many 
choice Scripture passages, and geography and illustra- 
tive study have given them some knowledge of the cus- 
toms of these olden days. 

3. Lessons for those twelve years old. Looking for a 
moment at the two plans, Plan 1 and Plan 2, it will be 
noted that in the first plan the twelfth year falls in the 
fourth-year junior, while according to the second plan it 
becomes the first-year intermediate. This twelfth year, 
as we have already discovered, is the year of transition 
from childhood to youth and is for that very reason difficult 
to classify. As this book is written from the viewpoint of 
the second plan, it will be necessary to consider briefly 
the lesson material for those twelve years of age. 

These lessons differ radically from what just precedes. 



190 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

First of all come twenty-five lessons on the life of Jesus, 
using the Gospel of Mark as guide. This is the Gospel of 
action and is therefore specially fitted to the needs of these 
pupils. Furthermore, this is the age when a more intimate 
knowledge of the great Friend of all mankind is needed, 
particularly such knowledge as shows him at work as the 
Friend of man. These lessons mark the transition from 
narrative to more serious study methods, now familiar to 
the pupils through their school experience. Notebooks and 
handwork of a more highly developed nature are employed. 

As these are the dawning years of social enlargement, 
of desire to become members of the religious organization 
and to take upon oneself the responsibilities of Christian 
living, and of possible awakening to some of the deeper 
meanings of the inner life, it is altogether desirable that 
the pupils should be brought into immediate contact with 
the matchless Life, that the motives of social fellowship, of 
service toward man, and of an open-heartedness toward 
God should be stimulated by Mark's vivid sketches of 
Jesus. Before passing on to more careful biographical 
studies these stories pave the way to an appreciation of 
the heroic in conduct and to right motives leading thereto. 

Following the lessons on the Gospel of Mark come eight 
lessons on service, their form being that of missionary 
stories, but their emphasis being on the place and the need 
of service, with abundance of illustration of what such serv- 
ice has accomplished. 

Five studies on "How Our Bible Came to Us" succeed the 
missionary tales, conveying briefly but comprehensively the 
interesting story of our own book of religion. The pur- 
pose is to deepen the already wakened interest in this 
great book. 

Further Gospel stories, twelve in number, complete the 
year's work, these being chosen tales of the apostolic 
church, as found in the Acts. 

Thus, in this transition year, the pupil is brought face 
to face with the Gospel stories of the Master's life, that he 



LESSON MATERIALS FOR INTERMEDIATES 191 

may appreciate more fully this Friend and may find Jesus 
both an example and a Saviour; he is confronted with the 
fine heroism that has led men in all ages to give freely 
their services in the cause of spreading the gospel story, 
and he is led to see how dearly the Bible, embodying the 
gospel story, has been preserved and brought to us to-day. 

4. Lessons for those thirteen and fourteen years old. 
Referring to the results of study of the reading interests of 
children (see page 175), one discovers that the story interest 
is succeeded by interest in adventure, travel, and biog- 
raphy. Hero loving passes into hero analysis. The hero 
who has been admired for what he does is now studied to 
see hoic he did it. What made him the hero? What caused 
her to do the great deed, the kindly act, or to play the 
martyr's role? 

It is only natural, then, that the stories of the Old and 
New Testaments should be followed by a series of studies 
of great characters — characters whose lives have been re- 
corded because they represent religion at a high stage of 
personal achievement. More or less has already been learned 
of the deeds of these men and women. A few words or a lit- 
tle study will soon recall their heroism. But now the pupil's 
attention is turned to ask: What kind of man was this who 
accomplished such prodigious deeds? What sort of charac- 
ter did this woman possess, and how did she come to pos- 
sess it? Herein is found the key to the two series of les- 
sons for the thirteen- and the fourteen-year-old boys and 
girls, entitled respectively The Leaders of Israel and Chris- 
tian Leaders. 

It is well to keep in mind that the historical sense in 
any definite form has not yet arisen. These are not his- 
torical studies, and if taught as such they lose just the 
suggestiveness intended. Neither are they simple hero 
tales, such as those the juniors have just been considering. 
The intention is, rather, to utilize the desire to know how 
it is done, so manifest at this age, and to apply this 
general and very intense interest to the field of character 



192 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

study. Hence, while the studies are arranged chrono- 
logically, that the time sense may not be violated, it is 
not at all essential that each and every lessen be consid- 
ered. In fact, if interest demands two Sundays for the 
completion of the study of a favorite hero, this should 
only indicate genuine interest, and the additional time may 
be had by eliminating some character less interesting or 
less valuable, as the teacher may choose. It is to dis- 
cover the springs of conduct that the pupils are led through 
these courses, not to cover so much ground nor so many 
pages of the text. 

In the first of these courses, The Leaders of Israel, Old 
Testament characters of worth because representing one or 
more outstanding qualities are chosen. "We become like 
that which we like," we are told, and the endeavor here is 
always to present those men who, becoming liked, shall 
influence the pupils to become like them. For though 
times change, the qualities that make a strong, godly 
character are perpetuated and repeated generation by 
generation. 

5. Lessons for those fourteen years old. The second 
series, Christian Leaders, continues the studies on into the 
New Testament, displaying the same choices as were found 
in the former studies. One whole quarter is devoted to 
the pioneer and adventurer, that hero of the early church, 
Paul, not as theologian but as traveler, explorer, hero, and 
martyr. 

Geographical studies accompany all these lessons, map 
drawing taking a prominent place in the handwork. There 
is also opportunity to sketch briefly the salient points in the 
character under discussion, model outlines being presented 
in the teachers' books for their own guidance. 

6. Extra-Biblical material. Each of these three 
courses includes some extra-Biblical lessons — that is, les- 
sons based upon material outside of the Bible. These les- 
sons occupy thirteen Sundays or one quarter of the entire 
year. The reason for the introduction of such non-Biblical 



LESSON MATERIALS FOR INTERMEDIATES 193 

courses is twofold: First, they show that religion is not 
confined to the Bible nor to the men of Bible days; and, 
secondly, they are needed to furnish the interests of the 
pupil with the right satisfactions — that is, they often con- 
tinue the thought under discussion to its logical or its 
chronological end. One would not wish the youth of to-day 
to think of religion as confined to some past time, nor as 
now being something totally different from what it has 
been. God's Spirit still moves in men's lives, and we 
want our pupils to know that he may and does move in 
their hearts, too. To show how God still deals with men 
to-day, how his plans and purposes are being fulfilled, it 
is necessary to go outside the Bible for data. This is true 
likewise of the missionary studies, which are truly gospel 
stories — that is, stories of how the Good News travels, 
and not less so of those lessons devoted to telling how our 
Bible came to us. 

The extra-Biblical material used in the series Leaders of 
Israel is inserted for the summer quarter and consists of 
studies of those sturdy heroes of the faith who brought 
religion to our shores and made it live in the experience 
of our own American forefathers. They are thrilling tales 
of faith and of heroism for the cause for which Christ 
died. 

One can hardly think of stopping the biographical study 
of Christian leaders with Paul, for the leaders since his 
day have only gone on to expand his work and to carry 
the Good News to all the world. In their own way these 
later saints have been as original and as compelling in 
their own lives, as excellent types of character for study, 
as were those men who lived in and just after the days 
of Christ. How it does make our boys and girls realize the 
timelessness of the Christian faith and the unchanging 
qualities of Christian character to discover these same 
traits of nobility and courage, of zeal and of Christlikeness, 
in men through all the Christian era! 

It needs to be noted that at the close of the intermediate 



194 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

period a return is made to the subject of friendship. The 
reasons are not far to seek. Now, during the trying years 
of adjustment, as never before or since, one needs to real- 
ize both what the great Friend may mean to one's own 
life and to learn what true friendship is and how it may be 
shown. Chapter XVI, "In Quest of Friends," suggests the 
need of those ideals of true friendship. So here are found 
thirteen studies in some of the world's greatest friendships, 
given in the summer quarter but by no means to be 
neglected. 

7. The teacher the key to the situation. Need it be 
said that these lessons, excellent as they are, can never 
teach themselves? The teacher is the key to the lesson 
every time. He must know the facts, must have mastered 
details so well that he is free to teach with joy and with 
great enthusiasm. He must have studied his lessons not 
alone from his own teacher's guide and from the Bible but 
lie must be thoroughly familiar with the material as 
presented to the pupil through the pupil's book. But, 
above all this, he must be saturated with the spirit of the 
hour. Jesus, as a great Hero going about and doing good, 
must have become real to him if he would make his class 
see the Hero of heroes. The missionaries must stand forth 
in the teacher's own rich imagination if he would depict 
their lives to his class. The thrilling story of our Bible 
must first thrill him. Each character must stand forth not 
in deeds alone but with the hidden motives of its life 
clearly revealed. When such preparation has been made, 
teaching becomes easy and delightful, and the lesson hour 
all too short in which to develop the truth. 

Questions 

Note. — The reading of this chapter should be accom- 
panied by actual examination of the lessons themselves. 
If you do not possess them, send to your church publishing 
house for samples. 

1. What does the course Gospel Stories attempt to do for 



LESSON MATERIALS FOR INTERMEDIATES 195 

the pupils? For what age is it intended? Into what parts 
is the course divided? 

2. Is the purpose of the course Leaders of Israel to give 
the history of the Old Testament, or to picture the times, 
or to supply a hero tale, or what? Why the character 
analysis with each lesson? 

3. What great character is given an entire quarter in 
Christian Leaders? Why? 

4. Why is non-Biblical material used in this series of 
lessons? 

Observation 

Study carefully- a teen-age class. Do the lessons fit their 
needs? If things are not going well, is the fault with the 
lesson or with the teacher? If graded lessons are used, 
see if the course is suitable to the class. Is there any 
handwork? 



p CHAPTER XIX 
LESSON MATERIALS FOR SENIORS 

The use of the word "senior" in this chapter is exact, 
meaning those students who range from fifteen to seven- 
teen years of age inclusive. In actual practice, however, 
few leaders of these groups will find their students so 
closely graded, in consequence of which any discussion of 
lesson material will have to be considered with more than 
ordinary care. Suppose, for instance, that the so-called 
senior class of your school has in it pupils from twelve to 
eighteen years of age. Such poorly assorted classes are 
unfortunately not uncommon. If the class cannot possibly 
be split into two parts, one becoming the intermediate 
class, and the other the senior, then the teacher will have 
the almost impossible task of choosing lessons that will 
l>e simple enough for the less mature yet not too childish 
for those of eighteen. Even where the range of ages is not 
so extensive it may be necessary to consider the lessons 
already discussed in the preceding chapter before deter- 
mining what to teach. 

In other words, let no teacher be misled by the words 
"senior" and "intermediate." What is the age of the class? 
What is the average of intellectual attainment? If the 
members of the class, regardless of the calendar, are about 
thirteen years of age, they need the course entitled Leaders 
of Israel. Any of the three series already described, there- 
fore, may be used in the Senior Department. What has 
been written about these courses should be read in order to 
know whether one needs them and also to know what 
training one's students have had or should have had before. 

1. The life of Christ. What lesson material should 
students from fifteen to eighteen study? On what basis 

196 



LESSON MATERIALS FOR SENIORS 197 

should these courses be determined? We are now convinced 
that the student's ability and his interests determine in 
part the content of the course. Already, in preceding chap- 
ters, we have considered what Biblical and non-Biblical 
materials are suited to the growing intellectual, the expand- 
ing social, the quickening spiritual perceptions of the boys 
and girls. From story to biography, from incident to char- 
acter study, has been the direction of development. These 
students are now nearing the age of momentous decisions, 
of spiritual awakenings, more intense in some ways than 
ever came to them before. It is therefore the time of all 
times when the attention should be centered upon the 
forces that operated in that perfect Life. 

The character study of the two years preceding cul- 
minates in the study of the character of the man Christ 
Jesus (see chart, page 188). By this time the students have 
learned how to analyze a character, to discover what the 
man did, why he did it, and what value his deeds have 
had in the world. Can anything be more needed just at 
this age than to study what Jesus did, what motives and 
purposes controlled his actions, and what value for this 
needy world his deeds have? Can there be any doubt that 
just now, above all other times, the youth should be led to 
admire and love the Master, Christ, that, naturally and 
spontaneously, he may commit his life to the task of com- 
pleting the work that Jesus began to do? 

2. Decision Day and decisions. Just here a word 
about decisions and Decision Days may not be altogether 
amiss. Those who have prepared the courses of the Inter- 
national Graded Series have had in mind that decision for 
Jesus Christ is to be expected in the years between twelve 
and eighteen. Already it has been pointed out how great 
is the importance of these years in the religious develop- 
ment of the young. (See Chapter VI.) The end sought in 
all Sunday-school work, and especially with these pupils, 
is lives intelligently aware of what the service of Christ 
means, of what his life has meant to them and to the world 



198 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

as Friend, Redeemer, and Saviour, and whole-heartedly and 
loyally dedicated to his service and cause. 

The whole drift of the graded lessons has been toward 
just this end. Especially have the studies during these 
years of decision been arranged with the thought of ac- 
quainting the pupils with the Master, so that they should 
discover him as their Saviour. If an awakening to his 
service has come in the earlier years, say at eleven or 
twelve, it is not impossible that the impulse was not 
entirely foreign to other social impulses of these years. 
The more personal awakenings to the claim of Jesus Christ 
are likely to be felt between fifteen and twenty. Therefore, 
it is necessary to intensify the appeal of Jesus to the best 
and the noblest in youth by concentrating for a whole year 
upon his deeds and especially upon his inner spirit. 

Does it not seem obvious that no fervid Decision Day 
can do the work that is done by conscientious teachers who, 
through these six years, are again and again leading their 
pupils to new decisions for Christ? If the work of the 
teachers is well done, a single Decision Day once a year 
will hardly seem in place, though there will be need for 
public acknowledgment. If the work of the teachers is not 
well done, if these or similar lessons are not followed, and 
if careful and painstaking building up of true appreciation 
of Jesus and his cause has not been carried forward, then 
Decision Day becomes valueless and empty. 

In a true sense, then, The Life of Christ, for students of 
fifteen, is the culmination, the pivot, of the entire series of 
lessons. Toward this year's work all that precedes has led; 
on the basis of what is attained this year future studies are 
determined. This year's work can best be done if the 
lessons that have gone before have been well taught. Step 
by step the student has been mounting toward new visions 
of duty, of service, of power, of love and loyalty. Now, 
having learned to know the Master, having glimpsed the 
"heavenly vision" like Paul of old, his life will be deter- 
mined by his obedience or neglect. This is no hothouse, no 



LESSON MATERIALS FOR SENIORS 199 

forcing process; it is the natural and normal maturing 
of life processes as old as the race and as deep-seated as 
our instincts. All that has been done is to arrange the 
situations so that right adjustments are easy, right choices 
not difficult, right ambitions aroused, right habits begun, 
right emotions stirred. Having done this, the teacher, the 
superintendent, and the pastor must depend on the power 
divine to bless, to utilize, to own as his, all that has been 
attempted. 

3. Christian living. Christ having been made Guide 
of life, what are the problems that confront the young? 
What are the things that must be learned to equip one for 
successful Christian living? The attempt to answer these 
questions is found in the lesson material for those sixteen 
years of age. 

It is not true that all boys and girls, even under the 
desirable environment desired, make their final decisions 
in their sixteenth year, nor yet in their seventeenth. It 
will be desirable to continue to hold attention upon Chris- 
tian ideals for some time. The attempt up to this time has 
been through hero stories in the earlier junior years; 
through a more careful study of Jesus and his life at the 
twelfth year, using the Gospel of Mark; and, finally, through 
character study in the fifteenth year. The approach in the 
new studies is topical. The mental life of high-school 
students entirely justifies such procedure. The topics fall 
into groups, each a unit in itself, but all combining to 
define the ideals, the duties, the problems, the institutions, 
and the guidebook of the Christian religion. 

The considerable number who join the church or who, 
having joined previously, now desire to make their lives 
felt in some definite forms of activity render information 
regarding church membership, its duties and responsibili- 
ties, especially valuable. What has been vainly sought in 
textbooks for pastors' classes, confirmation classes, or pro- 
bationers' classes is contained in this year's lessons. Not 
infrequently the pastor is the very one who ought, at the 



200 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Sunday-school hour, to teach this course. Why not? He is 
the one to whom the young naturally look for guidance at 
just these points. He is the one who shall receive these 
young people into the church or, having received them, 
now has his obligation to train them in their religious 
lives. So it comes about naturally and easily that pastor 
and youths are thrown together in most intimate and vital 
relations, quite as a part of the Sunday-school program. 

In other cases, especially in large Sunday schools, where 
this cannot well be done, instruction can be carried for- 
ward by teachers and, in many cases, more skillfully than 
by pastors who have had no training in the art of teaching. 
But in all such cases it is possible to have the encourage- 
ment and, at times, the presence of the pastor, who should 
realize that this class is a class in training in church 
membership and. therefore, under his peculiar supervision. 

Such. then, is the lesson material planned for those 
sixteen years old. Its fundamental purpose is to help those 
having made the decision to follow Christ, to become 
properly adjusted to Christian living, the Christian Church, 
the Word of God. It is expected that by thus dwelling upon 
and extending the studies regarding Christian ideals, those 
not yet committed to the Master may be helped toward 
this decision. It is hoped also that these lessons will stimu- 
late real interest in and love for the Bible as a means of 
personal spiritual growth. 

4. The -world a field for Christian service. From 
personal ideals and decisions to adjustment of the life to 
its tasks, duties, and privileges has been the order. What 
further adjustments need be made in these formative 
years? What of the growing recognition that one must 
soon take his place in the world's work, must find the task 
best fitted to him and in which he can discover the largest 
possible means of service? How shall the Sunday school 
help boys and girls to see the religious significance of the 
profession or business and of the daily routine of life itself? 
Is it not pitiful to see high resolves vanish or grow thin 



LESSON MATERIALS FOR SENIORS 201 

and attenuated as youth emerges from the idealism of 
adolescence into the ''light of common day"? What can 
be done to prevent the break so common between the sacred 
and profane, between religion as emotion and religion as 
life? 

Still keeping in mind that final decisions are not by all 
students yet made, and that the best atmosphere for such 
later decisions is found in the consideration of Christian 
ideals and the discussion of Christian standards, one must 
realize that the lessons for those of seventeen are planned 
to aid the growing youth to find his place in life's great 
world of opportunity. So great has been the stress upon 
the work of the ministry as peculiarly religious that it has 
tended at times to obscure the deeply religious implications 
of other professions — medicine, the law, teaching, — and of 
such occupations as commerce, homemaking, farming, and 
the like. What is needed by these young men and women 
is a standard by which to judge whether or not this or 
that affords opportunity for growing in Christian fellow- 
ship. Further, many of our young people are so placed 
that they have little or no chance to know what any busi- 
ness or profession, outside that practiced by their own 
fathers, may mean to them. They need to be shown that 
the whole world is a field for Christian service, demanding 
every kind of talent, every sort of skill. Success, that 
goddess so blindly worshiped among us, needs to be looked 
at with cheerful scrutiny to discover just what she may be, 
and how far her behests shall be followed. What is true 
success anyway? 

The World a Field for Christian Service is not a series 
of lessons intended primarily for the vocational guidance 
of the young; rather it is an endeavor to give oppor- 
tunity of understanding how wide is the call for Christian 
service in every department of life and of discovering how 
one may make any calling or profession a means of building 
up one's own Christian life and of enriching the world by 
one's endeavors. 



202 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Added to the lessons on vocations are a series on "Prob- 
lems of Youth in Social Life," a quarter's study in Chris- 
tian morals. The subjects are just those about which 
youth is more or less perplexed, such as justice, truthful- 
ness, faithfulness to common tasks, liquor, tobacco, opiates, 
unclean and evil speaking, sex morality, recreations, and 
the like. Coming as they do when the students need definite 
reenforcement in their moral living, and when the stand- 
ards of childhood are being severly strained by contact 
with an unchristian or semi-Christian society, these les- 
sons act as moral tonic. 

A further elaboration of Christian morals, objectively 
studied through the book of Ruth and the Epistle of 
James, is found in the closing quarter of this most inter- 
esting year's program of lessons. Altogether these lessons 
enforce and reenforce homely truths — the claims of Christ 
and of his service as supreme in the life that really is 
worth while to this world; and the further truth that the 
Christian life is any legitimate endeavor, shot through 
with the Christian ideals of love and service. 

5. The small Sunday school. In small Sunday schools, 
where each grade is not sufficient to maintain a class, 
students of fifteen to eighteen years of age may readily be 
gathered together and taught any one of these courses, pref- 
erably, of course, in order as given in the outline in the 
preceding chapter (see page 188). It is well to note, also, 
that to teach these courses the teacher must possess himself 
of a copy of the teacher's manual and also of the pupil's 
textbook, else he will not be able to get before him the 
pupil's viewpoint. It should also be borne in mind that 
these studies, one and all, are graded on the basis of attain- 
ments of boys and girls who have had relatively good 
schooling. Hence, if they are to be used in a school in 
which the students have been denied the advantages of good 
education, it will be more satisfactory to all to choose 
lessons a little below the age of the students rather than 
to select those of their years or beyond. In fact, criticism, 



LESSON MATERIALS FOR SENIORS 203 

where criticism has been heard, is that the lessons are too 
difficult for the grade intended rather than too simple. 

One more word: It is not necessary to await the grading 
of the entire school to adopt these lessons in a class. With 
the consent of the superintendent of the school any class 
may find it profitable to take up one of these courses. Fre- 
quently teachers who have become dissatisfied with the 
uniform lessons have found their problems of attention and 
of discipline solved through the use of these courses. The 
reason is obvious, for these were planned most carefully 
to meet the needs and to utilize the interests of pupils of 
just these years. They are, altogether, the best endeavor 
yet made to furnish adequate lesson material for pupils 
of fifteen to seventeen years. 

Questions 

1. Why is The Life of Christ especially needed at this 
age? 

2. How have the graded lessons prepared for intelligent 
decision to make Jesus one's Saviour and Master? 

3. What is the aim of the course entitled Christian Liv- 
ing, and how does it seek to accomplish its aim? 

4. What reasons have you for believing that young people 
are beginning to think of their lifework? 

5. How does the course The World a Field for Christian 
Service help to determine one's place in life? 

Observation 

Ask a number of pupils between fifteen and eighteen 
what kind of business they are to follow as adults. Learn, 
if possible, how they came to choose their work. Seek for 
motives in their choice. Is it money, or an easy job, or 
hope of fame, or natural tastes, or the accident of environ- 
ment? 



CHAPTER XX 
GETTING EXPRESSION FROM THE CLASS 

Durixg the years under consideration the larger part of 
education is achieved by means of study and of expression. 
What the teacher tells his pupils is much the least of his 
contribution to the class. What he gets them to tell and 
to tell understandingly is much the greater part. Expres- 
sion not alone strengthens memory, clarifies thinking, so- 
cializes one's opinions, and stiffens one's convictions; it 
proves as well the true means of education. Even study, 
if it be truly productive of thought, is a give-and-take be- 
tween the mind of the writer of the textbook and the mind 
of the reader, expression on his part taking the form of 
inaudible discussion or of actual tests of the accuracy 
of two statements found in the book. 

The forms of class expression among intermediates and 
seniors are varied. Discussion, the keeping of notebooks, 
the making of maps and the discussion of geographical 
facts, the drawing of pictures, the compiling of charts, and 
the construction of models are among the number. 

1. Discussion. The chief method of teaching and the 
best during these years takes the form of discussion. About 
the worst form is the lecture. Whatever merit lecturing 
may have at other periods of life, it has none to commend 
it in these departments. The discussion is a free and direct 
conversation between teacher and pupils, and among pupils 
themselves. It is not a rambling, undirected chatter but a 
well-arranged and directed dialogue, in which the teacher 
or someone designated by him acts as leader, but in which 
all participate. Good discussion is never accidental but 
comes from deliberate and painstaking preparation. Its 
very appearance of spontaneity is dependent on the extent 

204 



GETTING EXPRESSION FROM THE CLASS 205 

of preparation that has gone before. If the lesson is pre- 
pared beforehand, and the facts are well in the minds of the 
pupils, the entire class period can be spent in discussion. 
If, on the other hand, the pupils have done no studying, 
and their stock of information about which the discussion 
is to be carried on is limited or nil, then so much of the 
class hour must be spent in gathering information as shall 
be needed to furnish a basis for intelligent discussion. 

Suppose, to illustrate, that the lesson is on Amos. Pre- 
sumably most intermediates are ignorant of or have for- 
gotten the facts in Amos' life. If, then, the teacher presumes 
to open a discussion upon the social conditions of Amos' 
times and his relation to them he will soon discover apathy 
or total indifference and he will be compelled either to sup- 
ply the information requisite to the discussion or he will 
have to spend the hour in study with his pupils as they dig 
out the facts. Either home study or cooperative class study 
during the week or on a given Sunday in preparation for 
later discussion is imperative. 

So much for the pupils. But what of the teacher? His 
preparation must be double: first, to gain mastery of the 
facts, else discussion will be impossible; and, secondly, in 
planning just how he shall conduct the discussion. For 
an unplanned discussion is like a locomotive under high 
pressure on an open track, the throttle pulled, and the 
engineer suddenly become paralyzed. No one can foretell 
what wreck may be in store. 

Granting that the pupils have prepared the lessons sep- 
arately or together, discussion may proceed through the 
form of questioning: "Why did Amos go to Bethel?" Two 
answers may be forthcoming: "Because a feast was being 
held there"; or, "Because the people needed his warning." 
The first statement is entirely correct but, if the discus- 
sion is to ensue, must be followed by a further question. 
The latter answer is the beginning of a discussion to be fol- 
lowed by other naturally suggested questions. 

Youths enjoy real discussion. It is thinking aloud, 



206 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

social thinking, and has all the pleasure of social coopera- 
tion. From Amos and his day to social conditions of our 
own time is a most natural step. "What kinds of greediness 
do we find about us to-day corresponding to that shown by 
those who 'panted after the dust on the heads of the poor'?" 
The kind of person who can stem the popular greediness 
of Amos' day is needed to stem the same kind of spirit 
to-day. And, thus, the kind of man Amos was indicates the 
kind of man one must be to-day. Such discussion is real 
teaching, for one must recognize that the only truth that 
is vital to anyone is the truth that he has thought out for 
himself. To be told a thing counts for little; to have 
thought the same idea out for oneself makes it a reality in 
one's whole experience. 

The means for drawing out profitable discussion are: 
first, thorough grasp of the subject by the teacher, so that 
questions calling for expert or extended knowledge can be 
accurately answered, or the source of information given. 
To be frightened at discussion because of one's poor 
preparation is pitiable, but to resort to the lecture method 
to conceal one's mental poverty is cowardly. The second 
step in preparation for discussion is to learn how to form 
questions calling for the expression of real opinion. Mere 
fact questions will only elicit fact answers. Questions 
calling for a "yes" or "no" answer will not arouse debate. 
Sometimes the answer to a question of fact may be followed 
by "Why?" and that little word may lead to an extended 
and vital expression of motives, causes, and moral and re- 
ligious valuations. Many suggestions in the teacher's 
manuals for the courses considered may furnish rich sug- 
gestions in forming questions for discussion. After all, 
practice in this field, as in every other, improves one in 
the art; and none needs to feel discouraged if at the begin- 
ning success does not crown his efforts. Try again and 
watch to see where interest lags, and where thinking on 
the part of the pupil ceases. 

2. The debate. The debate is a more highly organized 



GETTING EXPRESSION FROM THE CLASS 207 

discussion, in which the facts have been ascertained, and 
the terms of discussion definitely understood, while proof 
and conviction take the place of studious effort to discover 
the truth. Debate in the Sunday-school class proves highly 
interesting; but unless assignment of topics is made well 
in advance, and preparation is honestly undertaken, it may 
become puerile and have tendencies toward vindictiveness. 
These dangers should not deter the courageous teacher from 
attempting what is one of the best stimulatives to study 
and to genuine interest. 

The subject for debate should be such as to call out 
knowledge about the lesson, to create real thinking upon 
some phase of lesson problems, and to eventuate in con- 
victions of worth. Trivial themes and abstract discussions 
that get nowhere should always be avoided. The teacher's 
manual frequently suggests excellent debate subjects. 

The time element is important and can be adjusted only 
by greatest care. Each side should be limited to as many 
minutes as are possible under the restrictions of Sunday- 
school programs and must be held rigidly to the allotted 
time. Additional time may be gained, and added interest 
created by placing the debates in the schedule of mid- 
week activities. Here, upon an evening not restricted by 
the closing of the school, the debate may be lengthened 
to a point where real results may be obtained. 

The use of judges in these debates is another considera- 
tion of more than passing interest. One cannot always get 
those outside the class to act as judges, nor is it always 
wise. Let the members of the class not actively participat- 
ing in the debate act as judges; or, if the class is large, 
a committee from these. In this way all or nearly all are 
required to give closest attention to the debate and to follow 
the thought of the hour. 

It hardly need be said that debates should not become so 
frequent as to grow monotonous and dry. These can be 
the sauce in instruction, kept as special appetizers. 

3. Geography and map work. In developing the back- 



208 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

ground of a man's life the geographical and historical set- 
ting frequently calls for extended investigation. The geo- 
graphical sense is by now well developed and may be relied 
upon to secure and maintain interest if the teacher knows 
how to utilize it. There is no hidden secret here but plain 
common sense and careful preparation. With the courses 
upon character study are provided outline maps for the 
pupils. These are supplemented in the teacher's manual 
by completed maps, showing where the man lived, traveled, 
and worked. Over the pupil's maps it is possible to draw 
out the essential facts of the man's life. During the 
following week each pupil may fill in his own map and 
thus review the facts about which will cluster the discus- 
sion. To tie an event to a locality is to give a sense of 
reality to the deed. To place a man's life geographically 
makes him more human and comprehensible. 

Simple outline maps, not confusing the student's mind by 
a multitude of details, are far better than the conventional 
maps in the backs of our Bibles or hanging upon our 
Sunday-school walls. The map thus used becomes an out- 
line of the chief events discussed. Relief maps develop a 
knowledge of topography but, while valuable additions 
to geographical study, are not indispensable. They may 
be made by the class in sand or paper pulp or other readily 
molded substance, and then furnish both incentive for class 
activity during the week and for instruction on Sunday. 

Additional geographical help is found in the stereographs 
now provided for Bible study. These pictures, which, 
through the stereoscope, give depth as well as height and 
breadth, stand out in lifelike form. They are difficult to 
handle if the teacher has to wait for each pupil to take his 
peep, but they prove convenient additions if rightly used 
as valuable additions to the usual tools of teaching. They 
may be obtained from Underwood & Underwood, 417 Fifth 
Avenue, New York City. 

4. Notebooks. Notebooks become the habitual accom- 
paniment to Sunday-school study for those who have be- 



GETTING EXPRESSION FROM THE CLASS 209 

come accustomed to the graded lessons. The pupils who 
have already passed up through the lower grades have 
become skilled in their use, know their value, and expect to 
continue such activity. To others., however, especially to 
those who have for the first time been introduced to 
graded lessons, the notebook and the work incident to its 
use are strange, and not only must definite information be 
given, but clever stimulants must be administered, until 
their value and the pleasure from them are discovered. 
How this shall be done will be discussed more fully in 
the following chapter. It is here emphasized that as 
teachers we shall have to create an interest in notebook 
work if it is to become a part of the program of the class. 

Such work may be done during the class. At this age, 
however, the time on Sunday can much better be spent in 
discussion, and the handwork of various sorts can be left 
to the midweek -hours or to Sunday-afternoon gatherings. 

Some data regarding the use of notebooks are worth add- 
ing at this point. First, notebooks will assume just the 
importance in the eyes of the pupil which he finds them 
to have in the mind of the teacher. If the teacher looks 
upon such work as trivial and childish, the pupils will 
quickly adopt the same attitude. If he takes the trouble to 
make a notebook of his own, others will more readily 
folldw his example. Secondly, recognition of real merit in 
this work will stimulate excellence; only, real merit should 
not be confused with mere tidiness, as much as all seek to 
have the adolescent become orderly. Boys are conspicu- 
ously careless in details but often excel in penetration and 
logical sequence. Originality, clear thinking, and actual 
endeavor are of vastly greater value than neatness and 
aesthetic demonstrations. Not that these are to be despised, 
but they are secondary in studies requiring, primarily, 
clear thinking and judgment upon ethical and religious 
matters. 

Charts, outlines, and such aids to thinking are great 
guides to the pupils; there are few ways in which character 



210 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

traits can be better represented and memorized. The 
teacher's manual, again, provides excellent aids in making 
such charts, but better than any ready-made devices is the 
creation cooperatively with the class of such charts as 
shall truly represent the work under discussion. These 
charts, made together in the class, should be copied in the 
notebook of each pupil, serving thus to recall his studies 
in the latter part of the course, 

5. Models. The construction of models of buildings, of 
dress, of implements in use in Bible days, or of similar 
objects to represent missionary lessons has its place but 
may be overemphasized during these years. Many of :hese 
pupils have such poor ideas of what Bible times were like 
and what missionary lands to-day are like that all such 
models are needed to make clear what one is teaching. It 
is therefore altogether within the province of the depart- 
ment to spend such time as is necessary to create in minia- 
ture reproductions of the social experiences of the past so 
far as mere material objects can so construct them. 

It is always well to keep in mind, however, that models 
are not ends but means, that the purpose they serve is but 
to make the truth live to the imagination of youth. There- 
fore, it is unfortunate to find that sometimes this work of 
construction is taken as indicative of real moral and reli- 
gious growth, when, as a matter of fact, the making of a 
house such as that occupied by Jesus in Nazareth is in 
itself no more religious that to construct one exactly like 
those used by the pupils themselves. Anything that will 
hold intelligent attention upon Bible or missionary scenes 
and experiences serves a good purpose and is worth con- 
sidering so that such constructive tasks have not infre- 
quently been found most valuable adjuncts to the best 
teaching. 

6. Exhibits. To stimulate all handwork in these depart- 
ments exhibit day should be observed once each year. On 
this occasion notebooks, maps, charts, models, pictures, dis- 
play cards, and other handwork of the pupils should be 



GETTING EXPRESSION FROM THE CLASS 211 

placed so that the public may easily look them over. Par- 
ents and friends should be invited to inspect the exhibit. 
Such a day yields two fruits: first, it stimulates careful 
work on the part of the pupils in view of the fact that their 
work is to be made public; secondly, it stimulates coopera- 
tion with the home. No parent wishes his child to do sec- 
ond-rate work, and such comparisons quickly put the par- 
ents on the watch to see how well, in comparison with 
others of the same age, their children are doing. They 
also furnish parents and friends with tangible evidence of 
the sort of work the teacher is trying to do with his pupils 
and make intelligent cooperation possible. 

7. Honors and credits. Where a system of marking or 
grading is followed, handwork furnishes an excellent guide 
in judging the pupil's work. Where the spirit of the class 
is what it ought to be, the group approval or disapproval 
is worth much more than any other form of judgment upon 
one's work. In addition to painstaking marks or credits 
it is possible for the teacher to call attention from time to 
time to unusually good work and thus encourage each to 
do his best. 

Inasmuch as these pupils, especially those in the Inter- 
mediate Department, are still in school and familiar with 
school systems of grading, such markings prove satisfac- 
tory and are easily recognizable signs of worth. Many 
schools adopt the system of giving credit to notebook work, 
to attendance, to home preparation, to punctuality, and 
even to church attendance in such proportions that the total 
of proficiency shall equal 100. Such a system is better 
adapted to the earlier grades but may become an incentive 
to good work even as late as the Senior Department. 

8. Conclusion. Once again let it be repeated that good 
teaching for these pupils consists not only in talking, no 
matter how well the talking is done, but in getting expres- 
sion from the class, individually and from the group as a 
whole. Hence, it is well for. the teacher to pause from 
time to time to ask, "What are my pupils doing which 



212 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

proves that they are thinking upon the matters we dis- 
cuss from Sunday to Sunday? How are they expressing 
themselves? What other and different methods of expres- 
sion can I employ which shall compel them to think?" 

Expression in the larger sense of living — the only true 
expression of religious life, after all — we have considered 
already. Such life expression is far more vital in the long 
run than notebooks, maps, and charts, and all the other 
class activities on Sunday. To put religion into the every- 
day lives of the pupils is the great end of all religious 
teaching. 

Questions 

1. Why is study essential to real discussion? 

2. What sort of questions must the teacher form if he 
will promote discussion? 

3. What are some of the essentials of good debate in a 
Sunday-school class? 

4. What use can be made of maps as aids in getting ex- 
pression from the class? 

5. Of what value are notebooks, and how can the keep- 
ing of them be encouraged? 

6. How does exhibit day tend to improve the quality and 
quantity of the pupil's work? 

Observation 

Go to the high school and watch the methods by which 
expression is secured from the pupils. Does the teacher 
question, have reports, debates, notebooks, charts, maps? 



CHAPTER XXI 
HOW TO GET THE PUPILS TO STUDY 

Before answering the question "How may I get my pupils 
to study?" one may well ask himself, "Why get my pupils 
to study?" For to secure study the teacher must realize 
that it is essential to learning, and he must show his pupils 
valid reasons for putting forth such effort. Furthermore, 
he must be able to furnish specific directions if study is to 
accomplish the desired results. 

1. Motives to study. Why, then, should pupils study? 
What incentive can be proposed to the boys and girls which 
will lead to vigorous, sustained, intelligent mental effort? 
Motives leading to study are not different from those lead- 
ing to other forms of effort. They are, first, pleasure in 
accomplishment; secondly, social approval; thirdly, means 
to some desirable end; personal or social; and, fourthly, 
compulsion. 

Joy of achievement comes first in the list but last in real 
life. Everyone has at some time felt the exhilaration of 
accomplishing a difficult task, but few, if any, have set 
out upon its accomplishment from this motive alone. It 
is wonderful to possess skill as a pianist. It gives a sense 
of mastery to produce beautiful harmonies by means of 
ivory keys. But it is love of music or desire for social 
approval which motivates our long, weary hours of practice, 
' — or perhaps it is compulsion — and not the joy of accom- 
plishment. Only in mature life do we know the joy of 
achievement sufficiently to make it a contributing motive to 
action. 

To set before the pupils the joy of "getting the lesson," 
to picture the pleasure that will come from having care- 
fully studied a subject, is to appeal to a motive very weak 

213 



214 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

if at all effective. To say that one ought to study in order 
that he may know is too indefinite, too far removed, to get 
results. 

Social approval plays a far greater part in acquirement, 
mental or material, than is at first supposed. We labor 
long and hard to gain the approval of our teacher, of our 
parents, or of our friends. We do not wish ourselves dis- 
graced. We seek the reward offered, not because we care 
for the reward but because we want to know ourselves 
approved. This is appealing to a primitive motive, an ele- 
mentary impulse — to egotism, to put it bluntly — which in 
later years becomes self-respect. For juniors this appeal 
is strong. By the time the intermediate-senior years are 
reached it has become rather weak. But social opinion 
always weighs in one's efforts. 

Compulsion has no place in Sunday-school pedagogy. It 
has all but ceased to have a place in all pedagogy, for it has 
been discovered to be far less satisfactory than others, such 
as have already been described. Especially is this true in 
the case of intermediate and senior pupils. ''Thou must" 
should give way to reason and to other kinds of incentives. 

2. The chief motive. The chief motive in all endeavor, 
educational or otherwise, is found in one's determination 
to reach some desired end, to meet a situation, or to get 
Tesults wished for. The boy who wishes to build a boat 
does not need to be urged to the task of studying how 
boats are built. The girl who is interested in basketry and 
wishes to make a new sort of basket is ready to discover, 
through friends or books, the means to accomplish her 
desire. Self-imposed tasks demanding knowledge find their 
own motives. Whenever we wish for knowledge to accom- 
plish some end, intellectual or material, we seek every 
avenue through which such knowledge may come. 

If a contest of intellect is ahead of us, if we wish to 
debate some question or to discuss some issue, we seek 
enthusiastically for all the aid available. We bombard our 
friends, we go to the library if one is within reach. If 



HOW TO GET THE PUPILS TO STUDY 215 

our progress is stopped by ignorance, and we possess the 
key to unlock the knowledge that tears away the barrier, 
we turn instantly and naturally to the information that we 
lack. 

In these conditions study assumes its rightful place. It 
is ■ always a means, and never an end. If, therefore, a 
leader would get his pupils to study, he must show them 
some object worthy of their effort, some limitation of their 
knowledge plus some source of information that is worth 
seeking. He must stimulate their curiosity, awaken their 
interest, and thus furnish adequate ends that study shall 
be the means of attaining. 

To contribute something to a discussion from one's own 
stock of information brings satisfaction. To be able to 
contribute that information one may be compelled to study 
long and hard. It is useless to expect study in the class in 
which the teacher is the only mouthpiece, in which the 
only intellect called upon actively to participate in class 
life is the teacher's. Discussion, real discussion, awakens 
expectancy and the desire to cooperate in the social enter- 
prise. 

3. Lesson assignment. Thus, lesson assignment takes 
a foremost place in the problem of getting study from the 
class. Assigning a lesson is not stating that "we shall 
take the next lesson next Sunday" but is awakening such 
interests as shall lead to preparation in order that one may 
be able to discuss the lesson. No one wants to appear a 
dunce, or, stated conversely, each wishes to appear as wise 
as possible. Hence, a double motive appears in class dis- 
cussion — the desire to know in order to participate in dis- 
cussion, and the desire to know in order not to appear 
a fool. To get studying done, then, the teacher must make 
discussion interesting and desirable and he must awaken 
interests in the new discussion that shall be satisfied only 
through lesson preparation. 

Awakening interests through proper lesson assignment 
is, then, an essential step. Curiosity is a helpful factor in 



216 LEADERS OE YOUTH 

every such endeavor. Supposing thai Lesson 22 of Leaders 
of Israel is to be used on the following Sunday, the teacher 
may awaken interest by asking what other devices besides 
hipping a coin are used in determining by chance. What 
of choosing courts by tossing up a racquet? Or of choos- 
ing "ins" or •'outs"' by measuring hands on the bail club? 
David had a way of choosing by lot. The next lesson tells 
what that way was and of how great a part it played in 
David's life. The story in the pupil's book and the Bible 
readings will explain the matter. 

Such an assignment, while not going into the more 
vital elements that will be discussed, will at least stimu- 
late curiosity sufficient to get some work done on the les- 
son. Personal requests for single bits of information that 
shall be needed on the following Sunday are often heeded 
where general assignments go unnoticed. Only it must be 
remembered that to make a request for information and 
then to neglect to call for it kills the very motive that one 
is attempting to arouse. 

4. Social study. Studying may become a highly de- 
lightful social enterprise. To gather at the home of one 
of the members of the class or at the teacher's home, to 
bring notebooks and pencils and other necessary books, 
to divide up the work of research, to construct the maps 
together, and to keep the hue spirit of friendship and of 
healthy rivalry running through it all make for the best 
interests of the individual and of the class. Many ado- 
lescents who will undertake no work independently find 
that such cooperative study is "great fun." And one must 
remember that the public school is making heavy demands 
upon the time and vitality of these young people. To 
charge the study for Sunday with the fine fellowship that 
should characterize all class activities is only to carry over 
into this field of life some of the same spirit that already 
manifests itself in lesson preparation for high school. 
Such study groups also furnish the teacher unusual oppor- 
tunities te know :ke ideas and capacities, the interests and 



HOW TO GET THE PUPILS TO STUDt 217 

ambitions, of his pupils as does nothing in the brief lesson 
period. Indeed, it is a question if the Sunday school 
shall not have to come to the point in the very near future 
of recognizing the desirability of supervised study and 
providing for it in the regular program of the school. Per- 
haps, after all, those who attempt such ventures are only 
anticipating the adoption of a better plan by the entire 
Sunday-school world. Those who have been willing to 
spend time in this venture have pronounced it admirable 
from every point of view. 

5. Tools for study. A serious handicap to study arises 
from poverty of books of reference. To ask a pupil to 
look up some subject in an encyclopaedia when such a book 
is not to be found in his home, or to ask him to seek out 
some obscure Biblical point when the resources are not at 
his command, is killing to the whole spirit of the enter- 
prise. The teacher must learn both the extent of the 
pupil's own ability and the available sources of informa- 
tion. The Sunday school may provide a reference library 
that shall help solve this difficulty, or the class may from 
time to time purchase a few books of its own. 

Even then the teacher will need to have abundance of 
patience to acquaint pupils with methods of using such 
books. Many college students upon their first appear- 
ance in the college library have to be shown the use of 
indexes, tables of contents, and other similar aids. What, 
then, should one expect of high-school students or of those 
whose education has been truncated in the grades because 
of necessity or of neglect? There is still need of teaching 
our boys and girls how to handle their Bibles, how to use a 
concordance, what the supplementary material at the end 
of the Scriptures is for, and other equally valuable mat- 
ters essential to home study. Here, again, cooperative 
study leads naturally to just such disclosures. 

The more nearly the teaching of the lesson and the prep- 
aration of the lesson become truly cooperative and social, 
the likelier it is that real study will be done. Hence, it is 



218 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

well in the senior years certainly, and. under favorable 
circumstances, even in the intermediate years occasionally 
to place the assignment of the lesson and its subsequen: 
teaching in the hands of a pupil. Remembering :ha: the 
prevailing method of instruction is discussion, it is en- 
tirely conceivable that with a little help from the teacher 
in his preparation one of the pupils may show real ability 
in directing the discussion. Further., the teacher may then 
find his place among the pupils, taking part in the discus- 
sion himself on their level and quie:> but indirectly direct- 
ing the discussion in the guise of questions and suggestions. 
Not only is such training good for the class; it proves ex- 
cellent training for the pupil in charge. But. best of ail. i: 
makes study and recitation truly cooperative, the resui: •:: 
the direction of one's peers, and. hence, delightfully stimu- 
lating and vital. 

The debate, as we have seen, is only a variation of this, 
in which two or more members assume charge and furnish 
the discussion. And it should be noted that preparation for 
such intellectual combats is most easily secured. Here the 
end sought — success in the debate — is so obvious and so 

desirable that the means — study of the lessons — is gladly 

■ 

undertaken. 

Questions 

1. What four means can you suggest for ge::::;g the les- 
son studied? Which is of the greater: value tc the teacher? 
Which should seldom or never be used? 

2. Is study a means or an en 

3. What place has lesson assignment in lesson study? 
Illustrate. 

4. What is meant by cooperative study? 

5. Is it fair to ask pupils to work without tools? What 
tools are necessary to lesson stu 

Observation 
Watch a teacher of teen-age group assign the '.ess::: and 



HOW TO GET THE PUPILS TO STUDY 219 

determine how far such assignment is intended to stimulate 
home study. Does he expect home study? 

If teaching an intermediate or senior class try the plan 
of having the class agree upon an evening of the week, or 
an hour at some other time, at which all may study the 
lesson together under your supervision. 



CHAPTER XXII 
ADOLESCENT DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS 

The adolescent years have frequently been called years 
of doubt. This is an inaccurate and uncritical judgment. 
More accurately they are years of candid inquiry, of exper- 
iment. The new intellectual life, insistent upon knowing 
the facts in any case, is determined to go beyond facts to 
their reasons and their causes. The credulity of childhood 
is giving way to the spirit of inquiry and of investigation. 
As well attempt to stem the ocean's rising tide as to stop 
this intellectual awakening. To do so would be to stultify 
the mental life of the young, leaving the youth dissatisfied 
with his source of information, compelling him to seek 
from less able and less sympathetic sources answers to his 
insistent questions. 

1. Why pupil's questions? How, then, shall the Sun- 
day-school teacher treat the questions of his pupils? To 
answer this one must know more clearly the source of 
youth's interrogations. The tendency to personalize all the 
forces of nature has been a part of the credulity and inex- 
perience of childhood. What the race through long genera- 
tions has begun to acquire of knowledge of nature's laws 
a,nd ways, we endeavor to put into the possession of the 
child in relatively short order. Primitive people carry 
their childish explanations of natural phenomena all 
through their maturer years, as is illustrated in the super- 
stitions of non-Christian peoples. What we try to do for 
the child is to emancipate him from these childish views 
and enable him to rationalize his environment. This 
change must be made abruptly at ten or twelve years of 
age. Frequently little or no preparation has been given, 

220 



ADOLESCENT DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS 221 

and from the credulity of childhood the pupil emerges as 
by magic into a world of law and order, of consistent rela- 
tions. 

As if to emphasize the difficulty still further our religious 
thinking lags behind our accepted educational standards, 
tending to divide the world of religion sharply from the 
world of nature and of science. Miracle, accident, and un- 
reasoning faith confront the child in his religious life; 
law, order, and reason hold sway in the world that opens 
before him in school, textbook, and nature. No wonder he 
is compelled to ask questions and to make sure of his bear- 
ings as he attempts to live in this new world. 

"I do not know what to do with my daughter," said a 
physician to a Sunday-school worker. "In Sunday school 
she is learning to live by faith without using her reason; 
in high school she is constantly taught to use her brains. 
In Sunday school she finds a world of miracle, chance; in 
public school she is taught that this is a world of law. 
We are Methodists, and I want her to become a loyal 
Christian; but she is facing grave difficulties if not real 
danger." Some such anxiety has been the possession of 
many an anxious father or mother and of not a few Sunday- 
school teachers. 

2. Frankness and candor. Obviously it will not do to 
ignore pupils' questions. They come from minds sincerely 
desiring to know the truth. To refuse to answer, to ignore 
as of little moment, or to* answer flippantly is hardly less 
than real cruelty. To have placed upon one the responsi- 
bility of training the minds of youth in religious thought, 
feeling, and action carries with it the obligation to face 
frankly their questions. 

Nor will it do to evade these questions. Ambiguous an- 
swers and other "artful dodges" will only arouse the open 
or concealed disgust of the class. Bluffing is nowhere less 
acceptable nor less tolerated than in answering questions 
upon the solution of which hangs the destiny of a soul. 
Frank, sincere answers should be given. Youth asks for 



222 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

such, the nature of the situation demands them, the teach- 
er's own integrity compels them. 

3. The larger divinity. But sincerity is only one ele- 
ment in the problem, though by far the largest element. 
Questions must be answered in the light of the pupils' 
present intellectual and moral attainments. There is a 
type of literalness courted by some which would rob the 
world of all mystery, of all poetry and aesthetic beauty. 
The youth needs a big world for his growing mind, 
a world in which still remain unknown and unex- 
plored countries. In the endeavor to be honest the 
teacher needs to be cautious lest he strip the world of 
all its glory, leaving only a dry desert place. When we 
have found that, with unchanging regularity, the radiant 
sun is lifted into the zenith, we need to remind our boys 
and girls of the subtler Force that lies back of such regu- 
larity. If we have discovered possible explanations for 
what have appeared to be unusual and marvelous inter- 
pretations of the divine will, we must supplement this loss 
by a larger faith in the ever-present, miracle-working power 
of an orderly, law-creating, and law-abiding God. Religion 
feeds not upon ignorance and superstition but, rather, upon 
the sense of wonder and awe which produces reverence. 
The pupil's questions, then, need exact not only the honest 
answers but such as shall disclose a still more marvelous 
and more divinely directed universe. 

4. Thinking out answers. It is far better to let pupils 
think out their own answers than to give dogmatic replies 
to their inquiries. The whole discussion scheme as a teach- 
ing method enables the teacher so to direct thought that 
the pupils shall arrive at their own conclusions. ''Do you 
think so and so?" asks a pupil. "Well, what I think is not 
so important," responds the teacher, "but what are the 
facts? Now let us see." Together they proceed to suggest 
several lines of possible thinking. One does not seem rea- 
sonable. Another seems more likely, a third has some 
merit. "Perhaps we can best answer our own question by 



ADOLESCENT DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS 223 

trying it out in our lives,'' suggests the experienced instruc- 
tor, or, "I have found from my own experience that it 
seems so and so, but you will have to try it out too and 
see if I am correct." 

For, after all, the answer is not the important thing, but 
the direction given to honest thinking and to consequent 
living. And an equally important matter is the continued 
sympathy and the hearty support of the teacher as fur- 
ther investigation is made. For the one inexcusable 
answer to any question from the young, no matter how 
shocking or unconventional or even staggering it may 
sound, is the raised eyebrows, the look of unconcealed as- 
tonishment, dismay, or arrogance in the teacher's face. 
For then and there he has lost the confidence of his pupil, 
and between the two is sure to come a gap across which 
neither mind will be able to travel to the other. And it 
must be borne in mind that the young do like to shock their 
elders, not from malice but out of a determination to let it 
be known that they are now old enough to think and to 
act independently. 

5. The unanswerable. What of the questions that the 
teacher cannot answer? How far shall he reveal his insuf- 
ficiency? To bluff an answer may seem to keep professional 
respect. But, like all bluffing, it ends in the pupil's discov- 
ering the insincerity, whereupon confidence as well as 
respect is irretrievably lost. The far better way is to 
admit ignorance. None is omniscient save One, and a fool 
or a child can ask questions that the wisest cannot answer. 
Consequently, we shall win the respect and hold the confi- 
dence of our pupils best by admitting that we do not 
know if such is the truth. In case of questions dealing 
with facts teacher and pupils together may search out the 
desired answer. In questions beyond facts, dealing with 
theories or guesses, the teacher is always to stay on the 
sure foundations of his knowledge, leaving to his pupils to 
determine for themselves the more likely solutions. In 
matters that should come within the lesson preparation of 



224 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

the teacher ignorance, of course, reveals sloth and care- 
lessness and is not accepted by self-respecting pupils in lieu 
of the answers that they have a right to expect. 

6. Further investigation. Questions requiring more 
than a brief period of the lesson hour may profitably be 
postponed to a midweek evening, when, in the free atmos- 
phere of the teacher's or the pupil's home, time shall be 
found for threshing out these problems. For it must 
always be remembered that, however well settled :r how- 
ever trivial some questions may appear to the adult, each 
generation must settle them afresh; and youth is ever seek- 
ing the sympathetic and understanding mind thai shall help 
it think through the big things of lire, 

7. Classification. The range o: Questions is so great 
that no one is able to foresee what may he asked. How- 
ever, a certain degree of classification is possible eTen in 
this seeming intellectual chaos. Theological questions deal- 
ing with God, the divinity of Jesus, the Bible and its com- 
position, the devil, sin, and salvation are all attempts :t 
the young to think in terms of current religious phrase- 
ology. Questions dealing with practical Christian living 
are closely allied to these, such as: "Why should a person 
join the church?" "Why be baptized?" "Why go to church?" 
"Why keep up the habits of prayer?" "Does prayer really 
make any difference?" "How much shall I give the 
church?" "What may a Christian do?" Why may not 
Christian do this or that?" It should be note:: that the 
course on Christian Living is intended to raise some of these 
very questions and to help the pupils in their settlems: 

Next come questions of a philosophical nature: "Is God 
the Guide of all the world?" "Why does he permit evil 
"What about miracles?" "My teacher at high school sa; 
so and so; the Bible says so and so. What am I to believe?" 
Questions of this sort do not seriously disturb the young 
until the senior years; t len they ccme they are vital] 

and must be fairly met. 

Last of all, and by far the greater number, come those! 



ADOLESCENT DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS 225 

questions of plain ethical living: "Why is it wrong to do 
this?" "So-and-so does that and he is a pretty good man." 
"Is it wrong to dance? to play cards? to go to the theater? 
Why?" These and other similar demands will he made 
upon every teacher of youth and will tax the patience and 
the mental acumen to the uttermost. Dogmatic assertions 
will never prevail. Reasoning must be made plain so that 
those less gifted may follow the thought to the conclusion. 
3. The best answer. Fortunately the best answer to 
many of these hard questions is the life of the teacher. 
His own example is worth more than his words, for he is 
the gospel incarnate to his class, and in him and in his 
way of life they find the solutions most fully met. Con- 
fidence in him, respect for his integrity, devotion to his 
never-failing interest in them, settle many problems in a 
way that words can never do, and settle them aright. 
While no teacher can afford to intrench himself behind 
his character and refuse to answer honest doubts, he 
can have the satisfaction that a bigger answer is being 
worked out in his life with the young than in the brief 
and only partial discussions of the class. Again, let it be 
related that this is an added reason or, rather, the same 
reason reiterated for his throwing himself into the lives 
of his class, for living with them in their sports, their rec- 
reations and amusements, as well as in the brief hour of 
instruction. To find in him the spirit of the Master is to 
discover the Master himself. To discover the Master is to 
make the Master their own. To make the Master their own 
is to settle many of the gravest questions. 

Questions 

1. Why does the adolescent boy or girl seem to be skep- 
tical? 

2. May one ignore the questionings of youth? 

3. Do the young want final answers to their questions or 
sympathetic understanding? What reasons can you give for 
your answer? 



226 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

4. Suppose a teacher cannot answer a question, what 
then? 

5. What are some of the common types of questions 
asked? 

6. How may the teacher's personality become the best 
answer to many questions? 

Observation 

Recall your own youth. To what questions did you wish 
answers? Upon what questions are your pupils seeking 
light? If they ask no questions, what then? Place a box 
in the room for unsigned questions to see what two or 
three weeks will produce. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
HELPING PUPILS DECIDE THEIR FUTURE 

He was a tall lad who had enjoyed no educational ad- 
vantages aside from a good mother, who had bequeathed to 
him not only such meager instruction as she was able 
before her early death but a studious mind as well. Born 
of an English family, he had suffered not only from eco- 
nomic necessity, which compelled him to contribute to the 
family upkeep, but from that English tradition which asso- 
ciates free schools with "beggar schools" and with too inti- 
mate association with all kinds of boys and girls. In conse- 
quence, he was approaching manhood with no idea of ex- 
tending his education beyond what his own endeavors in 
odd hours might bring and with no thought of possible 
service in the kingdom of his Master other than that of a 
faithful Christian layman. 

His Sunday-school teacher was a mechanic, a humble 
layman, but with unbounded confidence in boys and with an 
eye ever open to their future. One day he asked this 
lad why he did not go to school, go on to college, and 
become a minister. The thought lay like fruitful seed 
in good ground. But how could it be done? Perhaps none 
had any poorer conception of education in this land of 
unparalleled opportunities than had this son of a worthy 
English immigrant. Then the resources of the teacher 
were called into play. Advice and suggestion were given, 
help was extended, and to-day a minister of the gospel is 
faithfully serving his flock in a Methodist church, because 
his Sunday-school teacher saw the possibilities that lay 
in the lad. He saw and he spoke. 

1. The teacher's opportunity. The plea of this chap- 
ter is not to make ministers out of all boys but to watch 

227 



228 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

the developing process of these pupils so as to be ready 
to give encouragement and advice, to stimulate worthy 
ambition, and to help these young people get right adjust- 
ments in life at the earliest moment. These are the years 
when high school is finished, and when many, leaving 
school, turn to business life looking for a place in which 
they may earn a livelihood and fulfill their destiny in this 
world. In most of our communities vocational guidance is 
unknown. Only in a few of our largest cities is anything 
being done to inform boys and girls concerning what oppor- 
tunities are open to them. By merest accident our youth 
drift into this or that position, blind-alley jobs of one sort 
or another, or into places into which their lives fit. That 
so many "land on their feet" is only due to the fluidity 
of our society and to the old pioneering instinct that has 
made Americans adapt themselves to any situation and to 
adjust their lives as opportunity knocks at the door. But, 
year by year, as population increases, and our economic 
life becomes more and more fixed, the less will it be true 
that a boy or a girl can, as by accident, tumble into some 
desirable livelihood. Let it not be thought that the amount 
to be earned is the consideration that is uppermost in our 
thinking. What is being stressed is that many of our 
pupils find themselves placed in positions for which they 
are ill fitted; some, no doubt, awaken too late to get the 
preparation necessary for the life calling thert they believe 
might have been theirs had the wisdom and kindliness of 
some friend in times past pointed the way. What is urged 
is that the Sunday school has a task as yet little appreciated 
in placing its pupils in such paths of usefulness as shall 
enrich themselves and the world. 

2. Furthering educational ambitions. How many of 
the seniors are to go on with their education? What is the 
teacher doing to see that every one in the class who has 
any aptitude shall have an opportunity for further and 
better preparation? While this is primarily a problem of 
the home, or has so been considered, the Sunday school 



HELPING PUPILS DECIDE THEIR FUTURE 229 

must bear its share of blame if eager, plastic minds are 
robbed of their privileges. For, in most cases, going to 
college depends on an attitude of mind established back in 
the intermediate and senior years. 

How well one recalls the first hint of college life, brought 
through an attractive catalogue or, more likely, through the 
return of some one who had "just come back from college"! 
How wonderful it all seemed, and how impossible for us! 
Could one go? And what about entrance examination and 
costs? And where, to which college, shall one go? These 
and other similar questions called for discussion and for 
sympathetic and understanding friendship. 

When the teacher of intermediates and seniors under- 
stands that the leadership of our land, as proved by most 
careful statistics, is lodged in the hands of college students 
and graduates, when he realizes that, more and more, the 
lack of college preparation closes the door sharply in the 
faces of the young, and when he has discovered that the 
larger satisfactions of life are found in the trained mind 
and the widened outlook developed in the atmosphere of the 
college, he will be only too eager to aid in every way every 
pupil of his toward this desirable goal. He will talk about 
college life and inspire his pupils with the college idea. He 
will send for catalogues and, over their pages, he will stir up 
interest in college ideas and ideals. He will invite from 
time to time returned college students to tell his class what 
college means to them and how much it costs and what one 
must do to get in. And he will be ready to supplement the 
enthusiasms of youth by his own judgment and influence 
in the home. He will recall many a boy or girl who "put 
himself or herself through college." Perhaps he will see 
that the needed loan is obtained to make the initial start 
and, if the student proves worthy, will aid in securing fur- 
ther loans. Even though these pupils, as they go on to 
college, pass beyond the bounds of his class life they will 
never be allowed to pass beyond his affection and interest. 
He Will find Cime to write to these college men and women, 



230 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

keeping in touch with their development and thus tying 
them more strongly to the home church; and upon their 
return they will know that they have one friend in the 
Sunday school who believes in them and who expects great 
things of them. 

3. Industrial placing. The course entitled The World 
a Field for Christian Service has called attention to the 
varied activities of life and the possibilities of finest 
Christian service in each. This is in the nature of voca- 
tional guidance, though indirectly so. The great majority 
of the pupils do not go to college and will not for many 
years to come; so that the leader of youth has a task before 
him to aid those who in the grades plunge out of school 
or from high school straight into business life. If he is 
the kind of teacher he should be, he will not rest content 
to let things take their course. Ever on the lookout for 
the welfare of his charges, he will watch most anxiously 
to see how these early adventures into commerce get on. 
Here is a boy who is attempting to secure the means of 
existence in some blind-alley employment — delivering tele- 
grams, peddling newspapers, acting as messenger to a large 
banking corporation. Such a leader will not rest content 
until he sees that the boy is placed in some position where 
he can go on to something better as experience and knowl- 
edge pave the way. He will encourage him to attend night 
school, or, if none is available, he will himself aid the 
pupil or engage some one more qualified, thus getting him 
to continue his studies and fit himself for later advance- 
ment. 

Again, the leader will watch with all the solicitude of a 
parent, with unusual eagerness, the placing of the girls in 
industry, lest they drop into an office or a factory where 
temptations to careless or even vicious living shall prove 
too strong. As with the boys every encouragement will 
be offered to further the preparation for life's tasks. 

There are many misplaced workers in our industries 
who lose out not because of lack of native ability but be- 



HELPING PUPILS DECIDE THEIR FUTURE 231 

cause the kind of work offered is not suited to the tem- 
perament or the capacity of those employed. The teacher 
will keep in close touch with his pupils to see how they 
are getting on, suggesting such changes as seem better to 
meet the nature of the individual. For the chances of those 
already in business to further the plans of the young, to 
recommend capable workers to worthy employers, are much 
greater than is frequently supposed. And to utilize the 
chances of doing good is all that is urged upon the con- 
sciences of the leaders of youth. 

4. Guiding youth. Is it not possible to add to the 
efficiency of the course noted above by advising individ- 
uals as to their future? Perhaps it is not college nor 
an immediate job that is sought. Special training in 
some technical line — a trade of some sort — that is the am- 
bition. Here the demand for wise guidance and for sym- 
pathy is the same as for those aiming at college. If the 
trade school cannot be entered, various correspondence 
courses open the way to training in many lines. Such 
courses are lonely, especially if no friendly person is near 
to encourage one from time to time. Help the young to get 
ready to fit into some place in the world where they will be 
happy in the kind of service they are to render. 

For this matter of adjusting the young to their lifework, 
helping them to make their plans, is not just a mercenary 
matter; it is a part of our growing concept of religion. 
"To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill" means, 
among other things, to find the place where I can best 
serve it. Surely no one can render the best service in a 
position or at a task in a profession in which every day is 
a struggle against natural interests and attitudes, nor in 
a position for which one has had no preparation, nor in 
one which is dead because there is no future. It is not 
the money that counts here but the opportunity to fit our 
pupils into life plans that shall develop their own char- 
acters and shall help the coming of the Kingdom. 

The fruition of all undertakings for the guidance of the 



232 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

pupils in their life plans cannot be observed nor enjoyed 
except in later years. All such effort is building for the 
future, and only the future can render satisfaction for all 
one's pains. Hence, the tendency will be and has ever been 
to take the easier route, to let each pupil alone to work out 
his own plans, and to be satisfied to "teach the lesson each 
Sabbath." But let no worker be discouraged. The Master 
wrought with an eye upon the distant centuries. Can we 
not work with faith in the coming generation sufficient to 
put forth our sincerest efforts? A dozen years from now 
, some man or woman may look at you and say: "Yours 
was the hand that directed the way, yours was the faith 
in me that kept me from giving up. I thank you for 
what I am." And if it is never said, you may, like Paul 
of old, find your epistles written in human lives. 

Questions 

1. How may a teacher help his pupils to decide to go to 
college? 

2. How can a teacher aid his pupils to secure business 
positions for which they are fitted? 

3. When a pupil is in business, how may a teacher help 
him to secure additional educational advantages? 

4. What bearing has the course The World a Field for 
Christian Service upon the subject of this chapter? 

5. Is the end of all such help by the teacher a better job 
or a better man? Give reasons for your answer. 

Observation 

Confer with some of the young people of your community 
and try to determine how they came to be so placed. Did 
the Sunday school have anything to do with their life 
choices? Learn also from those who went to college, or 
from their parents, why they went, what determined their 
choice among the colleges, and what influence the Sunday 
school had upon that choice. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
DEVELOPING AND TRAINING LEADERSHIP 

In an earlier chapter of this book the question was 
raised: "Shall we not, perhaps, have to recast our scheme 
of recreation and of social expression and even our plan of 
organization and of worship so as to incorporate these 
pupils more completely in the life of the church? Finding, 
as we do, that by nature boys and girls are ready to go 
forward in their religious development, what can the church 
do to help them?" 

The chapters of this book have been written in the 
hope of answering these questions. To some the sug- 
gestions of an organized, self-directing group of intermedi- 
ates and seniors, genuinely controlling both in plans and 
in execution their religious, social, recreational, and service 
activities, may have seemed radical enough. But if the 
church shall retain its youth, developing them into robust, 
aggressive, self-directing Christians, loyal to the Christian 
ideal and to the church that represents that ideal, it will 
have to adopt such measures as shall be certain to achieve 
that end. 

A glance at the Master Teacher and his disciples may 
help us to see this more clearly. By precept and by example 
he taught his band of disciples for three years. Daily he 
gave them practice in the art of Christian living. As he 
was doing he sent them forth to do also — to heal, to teach, 
to preach. Never did he dominate their lives except as his 
marvelous personality drew them to his will. They were 
free, and in that liberty their lives were shaped more and 
more under his gracious influence. Then he left them to 
work out the tremendous plans that he had in mind. As the 

233 



234 LEADERS OF YOUTH 

Kingdom took shape in them and worked out through their 
influence to others, so has the Kingdom wrought itself 
in this world. 

What the Master did in the first school of the Christian 
religion we have been holding as the ideal in the Sunday 
school and the church to-day. In our own persons as 
officers and teachers and through the sympathetic and un- 
derstanding personalities in the church we have endeavored 
to bring the intermediates and the seniors into living con- 
tact with the Christ life. We say it reverently and with 
due appreciation of how poorly that Spirit has found its 
exemplification in us. Through the programs of worship 
we have encouraged our pupils truly to worship, to catch 
the Master's fine appreciation of the nearness and the 
Fatherliness of God. This has been the expression of their 
own religious natures, not the imposition of our plans nor 
of our viewpoint upon them. In the classes we have 
endeavored to get them to think through the great and 
vital problems that confront them, especially as these prob- 
lems relate to their obligations to God and to their fellow 
men. We have not tried to conform their minds to our 
adult thinking but to stimulate in them the desire to think 
and to live from the Christian viewpoint. 

Not satisfied to let ideas and ideals stand alone, detached 
from the actual process of living, we have watched with 
solicitous care and have guided by our best counsel their 
immature and awkward endeavors to fellowship, to love, 
to help, to serve. By our enthusiasm we have encouraged 
every evidence of Christian cooperation and activity. Nay, 
we have planned deliberately to aid them to achieve social 
as well as personal righteousness. This has been accom- 
plished in the building up of the organization of the de- 
partment, on the playground, at social gatherings, on hikes, 
in camp, and wherever social living has taken place ; always 
coming short of commanding, always standing back as an 
elder brother or sister. Not content to let these things 
come by accident, we have encouraged definite programs 



DEVELOPING AND TRAINING LEADERSHIP 235 

of recreation, of service, definite methods of conducting 
the Kingdom. 

Believing that the only thoroughgoing development of 
personality comes through the largest measure of social 
living, that religion is acquired, and character developed, 
not in idle speculation but in the actual experiences of 
social-religious activities, the church, through its educa- 
tional system, has set itself the task of incorporating its 
young life into its complex social organization. The wor- 
ship of the church has been projected down into the world 
of the intermediate-seniors. The missionary activities at 
home and abroad, in the community and to the farthest 
reaches of the world, have been shared with these boys and 
girls. The church has taken stock of the play life of youth 
and has shared their enthusiasm as they have built up their 
recreational programs. The Intermediate-Senior Depart- 
ment is one section of the church functioning fully, freely. 
and efficiently. If, in the long run, this should mean the 
readjustment of our present church programs and organ- 
ization looking toward the fullest organic joining of church 
and Sunday school as it becomes evident that these boys 
and girls are truly the church — one section, to be sure — 
living out its own experience and growing into an enlarg- 
ing life, then such readjustments and reorganization will 
naturally follow. When the time has arrived, and our eyes 
are opened, we shall welcome the change in the name of a 
better and fuller Christian experience. 

Every self-directing person actuated by the spirit of 
Christ is an additional asset to the present capital of the 
Christian world. The church and Christianity at large are 
languishing for the lack of such leadership, of men and 
women who, having clearly seen the purposes of Christ and 
being possessed of his spirit, are willing to spend and be 
spent in his service. Such persons are the salt of the earth, 
the light of the world. Instead of supine followers, mere 
hangers-on, conventionalized and stereotyped church mem- 
bers,' the plans above discussed aim to develop those who 



236 LEADERS OP YOUTH 

are to grow with their advancing years in Christian expe- 
rience. Having put their own ideals to the test of life, 
having become efficient in Christian living and in the pro- 
motion of the Kingdom, and discovering the great work to 
be done before this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord 
and of his Christ, they will have consecrated their all to the 
accomplishment of the Christian's task. This is the leader- 
ship that is hoped to be developed for the church. Not 
officeholders is the end but the creation of that leader- 
ship that made the early church felt in the life of that 
far-off day. 

While all know that native differences in ability to lead 
exist, every worker with these young people must act 
upon the principle that none is totally incapable. To dis- 
cover leadership, to find in some bashful, retiring boy or 
girl the ability to originate plans, to get things done, is a 
joy forbidden those who thrust the more forward into every 
place of responsibility. Not infrequently it is found that 
the burden of activities of a department has gravitated to a 
select few. "John and Marjory do everything so well" is the 
explanation given. This not only focuses too much atten- 
tion for their own good upon John and Marjory; it denies 
to others the possibility of ever getting training in leader- 
ship. For leadership depends for its development on expe- 
rience in leading. How can such experience be gained if 
John and Marjory monopolize the chances? If the plans 
for developing Christian leadership shall succeed, then it 
is necessary that in the different activities of department or 
of class different members be tried out. 

Failure on the part of the young sometimes seems to 
ensue when, in reality, the difficulty lies with us who 
teach or guide. We do not give the necessary support. The 
sympathetic advice and direction of the teacher may sur- 
mount such failures. That first timidity may disappear 
after a number of tests, and the "I can't" will gladly be 
replaced with "Well, I'll try if you think I can." The 
easiest route for all of us is to utilize the tested talent, 



DEVELOPING AND TRAINING LEADERSHIP 237 

but this is not the wisest nor the best if we would, keep 
clearly in mind our goal. Everyone wants to become a 
leader, and none should be denied repeated trials at this 
difficult task. 

Talents differ, as has been said, and a source of failure 
to create real leadership has not infrequently been that 
selection has been made on the basis of one single talent. 
One may be a leader and yet not be able to lead in every 
direction or at every task. Mr. Edison is undoubtedly the 
leader in his own field; how he would act had he to lead an 
army or to direct a university, no one knows, for he has 
never been called upon to do either. All pastors do not 
make equally good college presidents, nor all business engi- 
neers good generals. 

In religious work the standard by which we gauge leader- 
ship has been most often glibness of tongue. If one can 
stand before a meeting and talk well, that person has been 
looked upon as a leader. We have fallen into the habit 
of speaking of "leaders of the Epworth League" just on this 
ground. None should be denied the opportunity for such 
leadership. In fact, the conduct of worship, presiding at 
meetings, and taking part in discussion should discover 
those apt in this art and train others less experienced. 
But the work of our lives is not altogether determined by 
how well one can speak; other kinds of ability are needed 
quite as much in this busy world. This boy who has no 
special gift of utterance can arrange a party, plan an 
entertainment from start to finish, and make each who 
attends feel that he has had a good time. Such leader- 
ship in our social living is quite as important as is public 
speaking. Another, who can do neither of these things, 
can plan an athletic contest, a field day, a hike, a camping 
trip, and can engineer the venture from start to finish. 
Surely, such a discovery is worth making. Here is a girl, 
a demure little mouse, who never shows off in public, yet 
who knows how to get the girls to fill a basket and how 
to make the recipients of the gift glad that she and not 



238 ' LEADERS OF YOUTH 

another has brought it. It may be that the boy or the girl 
who can do none of these things is proud to care for the 
statistics of the department., to make the posters, or to 
keep up the correspondence with absentees, and is quite 
delighted to have these powers of organization and of secre- 
tarial ability utilized. 

The end of it all, as we have seen, is to develop skill in 
Christian living in a world that is looking to these young 
people to bring the Christian ideals to pass. The means 
at hand are the native capacities of the boys and girls 
plus the training that the church through its self-organized 
groups can give in the practice of Christian doing. Contact 
with adults who already know the Christian life and are 
exemplifying it is the greatest educational force. The 
Bible, a Book of men and of women who lived and walked 
with God, is the inspiration to larger experience as well as 
the Sourcebook of knowledge of what the Christlike life 
may become. Others who, since Bible times, have lived with 
and known God serve to enlighten these inexperienced 
youths as to the possibilities of Christian faith and prac- 
tice. Daily putting these ideals into practice brings not 
only certainty to their thinking but confidence in their 
living. Loyalty to the class and to the department enlarges 
through cooperation with the larger group into loyalty to 
the church. Community and missionary activity develops 
world fellowship and the determination to share the good 
news with those less favored; and practical service brings 
such sharing out of the cloudland of the imagination and 
the emotions into the world of actual Christian fellow- 
ship. 

Can one follow the plan laid down without being im- 
pressed that from start to finish the project has been to 
develop and train efficient Christians — Christians who are 
self-directing, have initiative, and, with the courage of their 
convictions, are determined to make this world what Jesus 
would have it be? That is the end. and the end is nothing 
less than the creation of such leadership as sent the apostles 



DEVELOPING AND TRAINING LEADERSHIP 239 

and their friends out upon the conquest of the kingdoms 
of the world. 

Questions 

1. Why is training in self-direction essential to the pro- 
duction of Christian character? 

2. How does the intermediate-senior program furnish 
opportunity to become skillful in self-direction? 

3. What, in addition to right ideals, is needed by our 
pupils? 

4. How do the personalities of teachers and other adult 
leaders aid in Christian education? 

5. How does intermediate-senior organization, with its 
programs of recreation, service, and worship, tend to de- 
velop leadership? 

6. Why should each member of the department have a 
chance at leadership? 

- 7. How may failure to develop leadership be avoided? 

Review 

Go back over the chapters, thumbing slowly the pages, 
and ask yourself, "How does this chapter help me to train 
the young in leadership ?" The end of all our work is a 
self-directed, Christlike personality engaged in building the 
kingdom of the Master. Ask again, "How does this chapter 
help me to be more efficient in training the youths to this 
divine accomplishment?" 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, Addams. 

The Sunday School and the Teens, Alexander. 

The Church School, Athearn. 

Graded Missionary Instruction in the Sunday School, 
Beard. 

Missionary Education in Home and School, Diffendorfer. 

Leaders of Girls, Espey. 

Boy Life and Self -Government, Fiske. 

The Boy Problem, Forbush. 

The Coming Generation, Forbush. 

Boyology, Gibson. 

Youth, Hall. 

From Youth to Manhood, Hall, W. S. 

Worship in the Sunday School, Hartshorne. 

Manual of Worship for the Sunday School, Hartshorne. 

The High-School Age, King. 

Youth and the Church, Maus. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey. 

Leadership of Girls' Activities, Moxcey. 

The Boy Scout Movement and the Church, Richardson 
and Loomis. 

The Girl in Her Teens, Slattery. 

The Girl and Her Religion, Slattery. 

Handbook for Workers With Young People, Thompson. 



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